justice, compassion and forgiveness



"If everyone in a battlefield can look the enemy in the eye and behold his or her face he or she will realize that the enemy is human and no guns will be fired at any battle front".

To understand everything is to forgive everything.  Buddha

Also look for pictures of youth that partcipated inthe demo in baltimore .  You met them at applebees.  Note pix with blurb on listening.

As I was watching this opera, I could not help reflecting on the thought provoking opinions in the programme given to us.  The writer stated that the courtesan or prostitute, Violetta, was the true, decent character in the opera while a respected citizen of the community, the father of her lover was the villain.  He was a hypocritical, self righteous and manipulative person according to the writer of the programme. The father was asking Violetta to stop seeing his son, Alfredo, or else the fiance of his daughter will give up marrying her because of Violetta's reputation and connection to the family.

As a testament to the goodness of her heart, Violetta decided to go with Alfredo's father"s request and broke off her relationship with Alfredo by hooking up with another guy.  And the plot thickened which kept me awake throughout the performance despite the sore throat I had.

And the enlightening not so fun lessons learned

Morals are learned in plays and operas as well as in life.  This opera somehow made me think a little bit of what is going on in the present times which are riddled with incidents where conflicting ideas of peace and justice exist and who is wrong and who is right is not always clear cut. People are killing for Allah, their God and for their perception of justice or lack of it.  Others are protesting the actions and decisions made over authorities who exerted or over exerted their responsibilities to keep order in Ferguson and New York.

Another inspiring incident is the parent of a little child killed in boston. He or she said I could not imagine how you feel to the family of the killer. Where do you get that from within you this generous show of forgiveness?

Amidst this l also often wonder about the lawyers who have to defend offenders.  How could they do that?  One particular lawyer of a mass murderer was asked that particular question.  He answered, "I think of him as a person and his crime as his behaviour."

I never thought that I will encounter an incident related to my trip to New York wherein I would be given an opportunity to comprehend to a certain extent what this lawyer meant.  You see I was robbed of my wallet while at the La Guardia airport on our way home.  I did not realize it until two days later when I got home.  Of course I was very shock and upset since my credit cards and other important information were taken.  Reading the credit card report online and how they used one card was even harder to take.  The hustle of cancelling the cards was very frustrating and time consuming.  My husband and I were on the phone calling the TSA security at the airport and also the airport police.  We do not know who took it up to now.

That night when I realized I was robbed, I slept well despite the day's emotional toll on me perhaps because I was still very sick and recovering from sheer exhaustion from the trip and this unfortunate incident.  But something weird happened early morning.  As I woke up I was picturing the guys using my credit card buying something from a kiosk. What I felt surprised me as this flashed momentarily but vividly in my mind.  I actually felt bad for them.  I did not feel anger.   There must be a reason for their act which I would like to state I do not condone.  Whatever moved them to do what they did I do not know but I felt something I never felt before in such situation, compassion.  Am I getting soft or what?  Was it because I was sick and weak and had more empathy as a result?  I do not know.  Did I see the person and not just the behaviour?

I read in the Readers Digest many years ago the story told by a man who used to be in an insane asylum.  One day an intruder came by who stumbled on him.   He stopped and looked at his face and just quickly fled. The guy in the asylum thinks that the intruder was shocked because he realized that he, the "crazy" guy, was human after all.

I encountered a quote somewhere in the internet which I could not find now.  This is how I remember it.   "If one can look the enemy in the eye and behold his face and realize that the enemy is human,  no guns will be fired at the battle front".

Perhaps it is possible then to have justice with compassion and thus peace if we just remember that we are all still human beings despite the not so humane things that we do.