Another day. Another act that shocks our sensibilities. Why is it we don’t bat an eye when we hear how vicious people slaughter innocents on a continual basis around the world but we are stunned so fully when it’s here close to home? Why do we think that we are different?

Evil makes no distinction. It resides in the hearts of both men and women. It has nothing to do with our level of education or where we live. I know very smart people who have committed evil acts.

But, says the retort, do they kill from a hotel room or in a church? I reply that evil gets a foothold in the most common of places. We are a violent species, not dissimilar in that way from many other species.

The difference is that we can be called to something better. When that doesn’t work, whether in Washington or Hollywood or Wall Street or the cities and ghettos and suburbs and jungles and savannas on this earth, we look for a cause because it doesn’t make sense. Until it does.

Those poor people in Texas. Full of life in one moment. In a church giving thanks to God. The next, ripped apart. It is only the cold-hearted among us that does not weep for them, nor ask how this is possible.

I live in a reality that accepts both the facts contained in the message I posted a few hours ago and the facts of this one right now. And, for what it’s worth, I find no contradiction. Heavy sigh.