So how's everybody doing out there? Serenity? Michele? Kate? Everyone having a fantastic week so far?

Yeah, me neither. I have to remind myself that Nick Berg's family is having an excruciating week of torment just to snap myself out of the big pity party I've been throwing myself. What's my week to that? Nothing, that's what.

Anyway, an antidote: Alan at the Command Post cooked up a neat little "make a difference" solution for times like these--"A Response to Murder: Strengthen the Good." An excerpt:

Tonight, I finished watching the HBO documentary My Flesh And Blood, which tells the story of Susan Tom, a 53-year-old single mother in Fairfield, California. Susan is the mother of 13 children, 11 of whom she has adopted, many of whom suffer from handicaps and diseases. Teenagers Hannah and Xenia were born without legs. Anthony has a degenerative and usually fatal skin disease. Eight-year-old Faith has disfiguring scars and no hair from being badly burned as an infant. Joe, 15, recently passed away from cystic fibrosis. Margaret, 18, helps Susan raise the family.
. . .
I turn from that documentary to The Command Post, where I see posted the photographs of Nick Berg’s beheading, and I’m struck bluntly by the complete antithesis of Susan Tom: murder, brutality, and disgusting inhumanity. In moments, I went from having tears in my eyes to having bile in my throat. And I’m left wondering, as I’m sure are most of us are, what exactly to make of it all.

Well, I’ve decided what to make of it all, and what I’m going to make is some good. Susan Tom is a hero … one of millions … waking each day with a commitment to make the lives of others better through love. Hers is an example to which humanity should aspire. So my response to the murder of Nick Berg and the inhumanity it represents is to use it as motivation to give to Susan Tom and the humanity she represents.

It's a noble idea, one that leaves me wondering how long it's going to take me to overcome my own wicked urges to say, "Christ, just nuke Mecca already;" how much more work I'll have to do on myself, how much more grace of God I'll have to seek, before I can start acting as Alan is acting--in the true spirit of humanity and generosity.

If you want to give, please follow the instructions Alan has outlined here.

And may we all have better days ahead.

Posted by Ilyka at May 12, 2004 06:35 PM in chariblogging