We Are in Truth All Vulnerable
by Rabbi Arthur Waskow
....We are in truth all vulnerable. If "a hard rain gonna fall,"
it will fall on all of us.
Americans have felt invulnerable. The oceans, our wealth, our military
power have made up what seemed an invulnerable shield. We may have begun
feeling uncomfortable in the nuclear age, but no harm came to us...
[But now] even the greatest oceans do not shield us; even the mightiest
buildings do not shield us; even the wealthiest balance sheets and the
most powerful weapons do not shield us.
There are only wispy walls and leaky roofs between us. The planet is
in fact one interwoven web of life. I MUST love my neighbor as I do
myself, because my neighbor and myself are interwoven. If I hate my
neighbor, the hatred will recoil upon me....
The lesson is that only a world where we all recognize our vulnerability
can become a world where all communities feel responsible to all other
communities. And only such a world can prevent such acts of rage and
murder.
If I treat my neighbor's pain and grief as foreign, I will end up suffering
when my neighbor's pain and grief curdle into rage.
But if I realize that in simple fact the walls between us are full of
holes, I can reach through them in compassion and connection....
Rabbi Arthur Waskow
Director, The Shalom Center
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