HUMAN BEINGS

Surfing through TV channels last night, on Memorial Day, I found myself watching a public television program about war and its effects on those who, through no purposeful intention of their own, have had to engage in it. Watching them, and listening to their stories, I could not help but think: what truly extraordinary human beings, these war-scarred men and women. They have had to learn to cope with the horror in their minds, with the pain, with their own complicity, with having been the target of other human beings intent on killing them, and having themselves committed that ultimate act in taking the life of a fellow human being. Their wounds are unimaginably deep and resistant to healing, yet for most of those interviewed the bitterness and horror seemed to have matured into a kind of infinite well of sadness and regret. And I, in turn, admiring them so, felt inexpressibly sad that the experience of war, and of killing, and of being the target of those intent on killing them, had turned them into human beings of such extraordinary compassion and depth.

I realize, of course, that there are many men and women returning from war for whom the pain and the horror prove unmanageable and who are unable to process them into compassion and deeper humanity. To them, I can only send out my own thoughts of loving-kindness and goodwill. We have greatly abused their humanity. May they finally find the inner peace and serenity of which we so cruelly deprived them.