Author Archives: Denny Daugherty

The Dark We Have Made

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I hate that we are a society that breeds and accepts violence, indifference, and suffering in various forms.

I hate that we value the wrong things and neglect the least of these.

I hate that as member of that society, I am not without fault nor am I entirely blameless in either regard.

I especially hate that, despite being deeply affected by the recent tragedy in Connecticut and having lived through a different kind of tragedy myself, I find myself on some level disturbingly numb, indifferent, jaded, and helpless in the face of evil and the pain of others.

This should not be, and we need to openly confess that we all contribute, at least in some small measure, to the darkness of a fallen world through our inaction, aggression, excess, selfishness, and apathy. In light of this, we must then repent from the wrong we unknowingly celebrate and work together to find new ways of dying to self and loving our neighbor as Christ commanded.

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“I have one last thought, which is that it really makes a difference what we say. The words that come…”

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“

I have one last thought, which is that it really makes a difference what we say. The words that come out of our mouth. I learned this from a woman who survived Auschwitz, one of the rare survivors. She went to Auschwitz when she was 15 years old, and her brother was eight, and the parents were lost. And she told me this, she said, “We were in the train going to Auschwitz and I looked down and saw my brother’s shoes were missing. And I said, “Why are you so stupid, can’t you keep your things together for goodness’ sake?” – the way an elder sister might speak to a younger brother. Unfortunately, it was the last thing she ever said to him because she never saw him again. He did not survive.

And so when she came out of Auschwitz, she made a vow. She told me this. She said, “I walked out of Auschwitz into life and I made a vow. And the vow was: I will never say anything that couldn’t stand as the last thing I ever say.”

Now, can we do that? No. And we’ll make ourselves wrong and others wrong. But it is a possibility to live into.

”

– Benjamin Zander, “Classical music with shining eyes” on TED.com (via hsinpeiandkeith)