A-Z blogging challenge: H is for Humanity

“If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.” -Mother Teresa

Every day, humans slay me. In both the positive and the negative ways slay conveys.

I think about all the pain that is inflicted--human to human--to the small, the old, the weak, the innocent. How much pain we bring into our own lives by being petty and small, callous and stupid. I think about how our Creator must sigh big, big sighs (at the very least) when he looks down on us being all of the above. And it breaks my heart.

(I heard a statistic today about child abuse in the United States, that more children have been killed in the past decade--in their own homes, by a family member--than U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq or Afghanistan. How is that possible? It is so hard to think about, that approximately seven children die every day as a result of child abuse and neglect, that I think we so often just don't think about it. Turn some other noise on, just drown out THAT fact.)

“I love mankind, he said, "but I find to my amazement that the more I love mankind as a whole, the less I love man in particular.” -Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

And then, there's the flip side. There is love. So much love. Compassion and selflessness shown to others, sometimes to a stranger--unconditional, deep, with no thought of reward or return. In times of hardship, but also in very, very ordinary times as well. How often is compassion like that seen in the face of humans? Every day. And it fills my heart.

Broken but filled.

Filled but broken.

It's what makes us humans, together.

“You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is like an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.” -Mahatma Gandhi

What's this A-Z business about? Check out my kick-off post. And stay tuned for the random joy and nonsense I concoct during the month of April!