In every single institution in the world, and anywhere that people hobble together there will be corruption. It is just the way of life, as we all know, and it isn’t going to change. There are generations that had less of the “me”, and more of the “we.” The WW II generation is one great example as they were motivated by a cause far above themselves. Before and since 9/11 we have witnessed sacrifice; we have watched heroes. But with all of the terrible things that we do see about life, on the news, there are several things that are not corrupted. Two of those treasures, I think, are forgiveness and love.
As I watched the gray-haired mom crying over her son, Junior Seau, and sobbing with all of her being as she stated that she would have taken her son’s place if she had just known ahead of time that he was going to be gone; I thought about love. I cried. How terrible to see such a private moment on national television, and all over the world. But it also brings back a truer reality, this is the crux of life…love. Not who you know, or what you wear. Those things are good, but less important and they look like shadows when compared to love. When it gets right down to the nitty-gritty of it all, without love none of what goes on in this crazy world makes sense. There is no greater power to motivate the human heart to become unselfish than the emotion of love. What are we without its blessing? Not much. What a frightening society we would be if we all lived with only ambition, or pride.
You can forgive someone without loving them, but I don’t think you can love someone without experiencing the want to forgive. I remember that saying, ”Love means never having to say you’re sorry.” Erich Segal. That has never made sense to me, but it sounds good. Maybe he meant that once you know love then you will never be sorry that you have understood love. I know that you wise people already know all of these things, but I just needed to write about treasures.
