We were not all crazy, honey, but some of us were. Some of us, if you can believe it—and it’s really just impossible to understand so you’ll have to trust me here—it seems that some of us would do anything for money and power. I mean it, anything—lie, cheat, deceive, steal, maim. Kill.
It seems—and darling, I cannot make it make sense for you, because it doesn’t—it seems that some of us thought tenderness was weak, that compassion was combustible, would destroy the system we’d worked so hard to build, and yes—still harder to grasp but just go with me—it seems that some of us thought that would be a bad thing.
Some of us prayed every day, though, for it all to burn to the ground. Some of us felt the flames rise in us and we took to the streets to make it clear that this would not stand. Some of us wanted nothing more than to look away, to hide, but we turned our faces toward suffering and said, “How can we help?”, and we listened, and we learned, and we asked hard questions and got hard answers, and the hardest questions and toughest-to-swallow answers we asked and answered of ourselves.
Some of us, it’s true, stoked the fires of hate, of division, of superiority. But some of us understood that what lies beneath our feet is some kind of web which we do not yet have tools to measure and that web is our interconnection. Some of us found beauty we hadn’t taken the time to consider before. Some of us became devoted to becoming better—not better than, just better. Kinder. Gentler. More open.
While it’s true that many stood righteous in their condemnation, their derision, their division, it is also true that many stood six feet apart and were closer than ever.
It is true many among us were heartless and it is true that many among us saw that heartlessness and it made our commitment to love grow like never before.
You will probably never make sense of it, the hate, and it should probably make us despair of the human condition. But hope is buoyant, and understand this: If you looked deep into our eyes, not just some of us, but all of us, you would find Love eventually.
