Attrition of Compassion
Attrition of compassion?
I don't think so.
An even crazier thing will happen today.
That's fine.
You will be incensed --again-- and it will feel just like the first time. You may get dizzy - try to distract yourself - feel guilty for that - maybe you will be able to cry and maybe you won't. You might need to hide from the world for awhile. You might say some things you regret.
That's okay.
It will happen again tomorrow.
That's okay too.
Tomorrow's crazy thing will get under the skin of just a few people. People, that is, who don't already feel as you do. Who finally --viscerally-- feel the cray cray. Know with absolute certainty --for once-- it's not just me. It's you. It's him. "Them".
Well and good.
And each day the Capitulation Trolls will come. They will remind you that patriotism requires the voluntary subjugation of your heart and your mind.
And the Hobgoblins of (Justifiable) Hatred will come. They will remind you that you have a right to strike out at those who offend.
And the ameliorating, condescending Voices From Above Our Station will squawk. They will remind us of our duties to our families and to our friends and to the great call of dignity which can be earned only though stoic conformity to a normnecessarily unspoken.
And this will happen every day.
Yes. You are small.
Yes. I am weak.
Yes. We are vulnerable.
And today more will join us.
More will join us today, because they can no longer find self-respect with in their private ideals. Can no longer bear to repeat talking points that make their lovers wince. Can no longer own enough hatred to ignore our natural unquenchable compassion.
Today we will grow our ranks, drawing together the small and the weak from those who failed us in the keeping of their sisters and brothers. We will grow our ranks from the very bigots and fools who cast us all toward darkness. We will grow our ranks as each recovered soul finds a way out from the darkness of ignorance and ill-concern, accepting compassion in place of false reasoning and pride, and into the sometimes blinding glare of humility before our neighbors.
And, as you have already done, each will forge a new pride galvanized in the shame of vanity and neglect or refurbished from first principles and deep respect for the unknown sufferers or block by block of actions concrete or symbolic, and of hope. Each will find their own way to discover that, no shit, we did give a damn. Those, who yesterday we're too far abstracted from us to see our vulnerabilities as our strengths, today will be absorbed into our ranks. The very fools who yesterday could find no love for us will tomorrow swoon.
We cared yesterday. Tomorrow will be no different.
Tomorrow we will care for a few more people. People whom yesterday we variously loathed or feared, by tomorrow will be steadfast allies bound firmly together by the suddenly renewed awareness of the hopelessness of human lives that we cannot begin to imagine.
And we are growing.
Every. Single. Day.
We are unstoppable.