Wednesday, March 14, 2007

The choices humans make

Surfing around today, I saw this post at Catherine's which links back to this previous post. Good questions...but my reply was getting so long, I thought I should just put it on my own blog, instead of ranting on hers!

Dear Catherine,

Well, if you are going to hell, so am I. I questioned God's existence after my children died and some days I still do.

But after a lot of thought, I believe God has given humanity all the intelligence and ethics and compassion it needs to save the lives of all people, from tiny miscarried babies to the elderly.

We simply choose not to save them.

We, meaning the government, the doctors, society at large, are simply determined to focus our money and energy and brains on war and anger and celebrities and circuses, instead of bread.

God gives us free will, and humanity can choose compassion and dignity, and to devote our resources to preventing these tragedies.

Or we can do what we are doing right now, which is NOTHING. When politicians and HMOs and Health Ministries make bad choices, God weeps. When we as citizens allow cruelty to be done in our name to grieving parents, God weeps.

When children die all over the world, it's humanity's own damn fault, and the bereaved parents are the collateral damage. They sweep us aside; they pretend we aren't sad; they call our losses nothing.

The same world that invented nuclear weapons could've installed an early warning system for tsunamis. They chose not to. The same world that invented Viagra could've invented drugs that prevent miscarriages and stillbirths and spread it's fame far and wide. They choose not to.

The same Churches that preach about life being sacred could choose to preach about prenatal health and nutrition, about the lack of maternal-fetal research and poor diagnosis. I rarely if ever hear that from the pulpit.

God isn't slamming the door in our faces at this feast Catherine. Our fellow human beings are.

Today I'm going to blame them, instead of God. I might change my mind tomorrow, but for now, he's off the hook.

I don't know if you should try again or not, but the heparin and steroids your Doctor recommended might be God's way of saying, "Look, another human being might let you in the door this time. But you have to be willing to accept the invite to dinner, or we'll never know for sure."

Peace and love my friend, whatever you do.

9 comments:

  1. Thank you. You have inspired a post (coming soon). :o)

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  2. There is a story of a man who looked up at the heavens and said, "Dear God, there is so much pain and anguish in your world- why don't you send help?" And God answered, "I did send help- I sent you."

    Catherine, Aurelia, and whomever else might be interested... I cannot recommend highly enough the book "Making Loss Matter" by Rabbi David Wolpe. You do not need to be Jewish to find an incredible wealth of insight in this book. He does not pull any punches. He does not try to convince you that loss doesn't hurt, or that he has the answers as to why this life is so filled with loss. All I can say is that this book was the single best book I read after the deaths of my twins, and then the death of my father.

    Peace- Lori

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  3. Beautifully said, Aurelia.

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  4. Excellent post Aurelia. It really is all about our response/our choice to the experiences brought to us or that we initiate that either make us more human or less.

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  5. Standing ovation. Excellent - poignant - beautiful post!

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  6. Perfectly said, I couldn't agree more.

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  7. If the wailing from our loss could be heard it would be deafening.

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