One Way?

Unfortunately, I am not a believer in destiny. There is just no good reason for it to exist...no reason to make anything so complicated when the humans it was meant to be perpetrated upon aren't.

Fortunately, I am inconsistent, the victim of metabolism, the chemical processes of the body (mind, being an integrated consequence). And today I thanked...the periodic table?--for one of those moments when I wanted to believe, needed to believe.

I awoke this morning, the day before Memorial Day, to my normal routine: computer on; coffee maker on; rinse the eyes, dust off the teeth; password into computer; coconut oil, butter, cinnamon and baker's chocolate into the coffee; blend and settle in for the morning's news:

Seven Dead, Twenty Injured in California Mass Murder 

Obama in Afghanistan

Dozens die in Nigeria Attacks

North and South Korea Trade Fire

Man in Coma After Being Beaten by Gang in Kanagawa

Ad Infinitum...

And then I read this:

Man Catches Falling Baby, and I thought, Thank You! I needed that. Everybody needs that.

Humanity at its best. And, in my mind, there was a bigger story within this story: the opportunity to do good, the right thing, wasn't offered up by the worst humanity has to offer: the mistakes and misdeeds that are inflicted upon the masses by misguided individuals in positions of power. No, the darkest possible forces that lay at the origin of this opportunity to do right may simply have been some level of parental negligence; maybe not. Babies are slippery things. Duct tape and Velcro were insufficient to secure the last little bugger I babysat. (I no longer babysit: parents are so picky.) But here was a moment that inspired me to Google thebrightside.com as I was thinking, would the world be such a bad place if everyone, every morning awoke to The Bright Side of things, a news service that told nothing but the stories of good deeds and good people? Maybe it exists. Everything else exists in Google search! The results of that Google search shook my belief in non-belief. Those of you on the Beyond Avalon team will surely find value in what sat atop the webpage before me: The Wounded Warrior Project, not our choice for this benefit, but having a focus similar to the more financially efficient organization we've chosen:

Warrior Foundation--Freedom Station.

Of course there is irony in finding purpose through destruction. And what is known as The Contrast Doctrine (no cold without hot; good without bad), sadly, seems to be the inevitable defining characteristic of human mental existence. 

Maybe there is a path. Maybe I'm on it...along with you.