The World

The Merton Reflection--
If I had no choice about the age in which I was to live, I nevertheless have a choice about the attitude I take and about hte way and the extent of my participation in its living ongoing events. To choose the world is not then merely a pious admission that the world is acceptable because it comes from the hand of God. It is first of all an acceptance of a task and a vocation in the world, in history and in time. In my time which is the present. To choose the world is to choose to do the work I am capable of doing, in collaboration with my brother and sister, to make the world better, more free, more just, more livable, more human. And it has now become trnasparently obvious that mere automatic "rejection of the world" and "contempt for the world" is in fact not a choice but the evasion of choice.
Thomas Merton, Contemplation in a World of Action

In 1969 my next door neighbor was killed in Viet Nam. He was a 19 year old Marine. When the war came home we stopped playing army, and GI Joes. I was tried to relate the war death of my friends big brother to the political deaths of Kennedys and Kings; all were violent. All were connected. At ten, I saw the world as violent and small.

At 47 I see the world from the perspective of a person older than my years. To lose a son of 18 years loosens ones grasp on the world. It's OK to let go. Like a long ride in an uncomfortable vehicle, I am willing to one day give up my seat to someone with more exhuberance.

I choose to do the work I am capable of and I choose to do what I think is God's will. I hope doing what I think is God's will, even if it is not, is acceptable.

Yesterday I met an 18 year old son of caring parents. He has a life of promise ahead. My son is 16. He too has a promising life. I see people like these young men everyday. The world they inhabit is complex and complete with love, hate, fear, joy, hope, greed, cruelty and kindness. I will do my part to make the world more human. My son Aaron was 18 for four days, and I miss him.

In contemplation,
Tom