So here we are…the end of the world supposedly. The world may not have ended today, but sometimes it feels like we are not that far off. Humanity needs help. It needs to evolve to something bigger and more loving. We need to focus on what binds us together, not the things that tear us apart. We need a re-birth of sorts. If we do not, we will surely destroy each other and our planet.

I just came across this quote from Richard Rohr which feels timely.

The rifts and chasms between good people today sometimes seem impossible to bridge. Let’s just name a few obvious ones: male versus female, rich versus poor, liberal versus conservative, Christian versus non-Christian, “Pro-Choice” versus “Pro-Life,” the overdeveloped world versus the underdeveloped world, renew-from-within versus change-from-without, straights versus gays, hierarchy versus laity, whites versus people of color—and every shade of every issue in between.

We are all crowded on one limited planet and must somehow learn to live together while also maintaining the common earth beneath our six billion pairs of feet. Sometimes I wonder if it is going to be this very common earth that we all stand on and eat from that will be the only thing that will be able to bring us together.

I am so sorry for all those poor souls who died at the hands of a very disturbed young man in Newtown, Connecticut. The killer used two handguns and an assault rifle, all of which apparently belonged to his mother. What possible good can come from owning these weapons? And what is it about the US that seems to breed so many of these of these killers?

I wrote about this in another post back in the summer but every week or two there seems to be another mass US murder story. How many times does this need to happen before we wake up and do something about it? That people agree to live this way is the real insanity.

And that this could happen in one of the so-called safest places in America is very disturbing. It’s an atrocious wherever it happens, but what this really tells us is that there are troubled souls everywhere that need help.

Some would say the problem is not the guns themselves, but the people using them. Fair enough. But as long as there so many tortured impulsive souls out there, does it make sense to give easy access to weapons?

I ask again, as many others have, if guns were not as readily available would so many people be being murdered?