So Much Going On

There has been so much going on the past two days, more so in the world at large than in our backyard, but still so much to choose from when sitting down to write. A police officer in Kentucky was brutally murdered in his car by a suspect he had been kind to, Ruth Bell Graham passed away yesterday, the little red squirrel seems to be missing from our home, and yet another Muslim family has murdered a daughter for being merely human and wanting what every young girl wants and dreams of having - true love.

How can any religion have gone so wrong that it, seemingly, encourages the savage murder of one's children over matters of embarrassment? I realize these people would argue it is of much more import than that, that it is a "command from God," that honor and embarrassment are not equal - anything to justify the action at least in their own hearts and minds. I also notice it is never sons who are killed for these reasons, highlighting once again the disregard for women so obvious and prevalent in most, if not all, discussions of Islam. It troubles me because the tales I have heard of Mohammed and the women in his life do not sound as if this was his attitude toward women at all and the quotes I have heard from the Quran are not specific and subject to interpretation, although there are a lot of the verses and stories I have not heard or read. It also troubles me that this particular religious group seems to be having a much more difficult time evolving to meet the practical needs of any religion in today's world. It is as if many of these people are still stuck in a much more primitive and brutal time past when such things were the "only" options for parents when trying to control their children. Perhaps it is more a question of parents not knowing when to let go, to let their children finally take responsibility for their own actions and souls - either way it illustrates a base and brutal attitude toward women, a prejudice toward women, and a total lack of love and understanding for their daughters that is profoundly shocking and savage. The shame of murdering your own child for merely being human should far outweigh any thoughts or ideas of that daughter having shamed the family because she wanted love instead of some brutal arrangement in which she has had no choice. The shame is on the parents for their willing adherence to such a backward, ignorant, and vicious system, not upon the daughters who are so miserably dispatched by the brutes Islam permits the men in families to become in dealing with such trivial situations. Shame upon shame is theirs, not their daughters.

It troubles and amuses me at the same time to note that Ruth Bell Graham would have been slaughtered like these girls long before she could have even begun to become such a marvel of womanhood had she been Muslim by birth. She was too independent for any Muslim family to have coped with in any other way, yet she was true to her God and the calling she believed she had received from Him. It is too bad that the controversy over the place of their burial had to mar the final years of both she and her husband. It is too bad the pretensions and greed for publicity and fame has gone to the head of their eldest son, and it is too bad that, in this world, even such a well-known and spiritually aristocratic older couple have been obviously preyed upon by that same son in his quest for an immortality his parents never sought for themselves. Another type of shame but, perhaps, one that is excusable enough in both Islam and Christianity because it is a son instead of a daughter doing all of these things. Again - Shame!

One of the things Ruth Graham was noted for was her kindness, a kindness consistent with her Christian beliefs and one emulated - whether consciously or on his own - by the police chief of a small Kentucky town whose life was cut short by one of the people he had tried to show kindness to while pursuing his tasks as the town's only police officer. A light has gone out forever in America with this man's murder; a light that shines too infrequently in our rapidly moving, deteriorating world. I hope the rest of the criminal element in that town gangs up to let the drunken assailant know what a disservice he did not only the police chief, but himself and every other person the chief tried to help with kindness and consideration in the execution of his job. The ones who benefitted most from this man's quiet example and courage, though, are the least likely to truly appreciate what has been lost - his prisoners. Another conundrum of the times, perhaps, or just another reason such people are all the more important in a world spiralling toward its own implosion - a world that will eventually die "not with a bang, but with a whimper."

Last upon my list is the little red squirrel missing from our drain spouts, which it used as a highway around our roof. I have not heard it running around upon our roof for several days, it has not peeked in at me while I am in the bathroom or through the sunroof windows as I sit and type. Its bright eyes and lovely red fur with pluming tail are gone and I can only assume the fisher cat I thought I spotted several weeks ago may have been instrumental in its disappearence. I will miss watching the little squirrel as it raided our bird feeders or maintained its sovereignty of our back deck. Its chatter and skittering will no longer be a part of the many sounds of outdoors I have so enjoyed listening to while sitting quietly indoors on the warmer days of Spring. I will no longer be able to observe the interactions of this little being with the community of blue jays and cardinals, mourning doves and grackles, chickadees and juncos and an occaisional field mouse or chipmunk here and there, that has been the group our backyard has supported and encouraged this year. The cardinals will still sound their perimeter call and raise their young, the other birds, especially the jays, will visit and chat and spy upon me as I spy upon them, but there is no longer the bright eyed little squirrel to make it all even more interesting.

Death and loss are already such an integral part of merely existing that it makes no sense to murder one another at all. Nature will eventually render all of us to the base elements from which we are formed; why make such an effort to assist what we all spend our rather short lifetimes trying to resist, each hoping to live happily to as old an age as possible?

May your day be blessed with life, kindness, and forgiveness.

Izzlebug