Whether we serve as a cautionary example or an aspirational model, our actions and words can stay with someone long after we leave the world. In conversations that I've had with my pastor, I have quoted my father often. Words that were wise and practical continue to be useful to me thirteen years after his passing. His example continues to influence me to this day, and I will thank God for my father's practical wisdom for the rest of my life.
I do touch upon this subject in my upcoming book, Stolen Eternity. I lay the point that even the end of a situation is not the end of its effect on all those involved. Here is an excerpt of the book. In it, Adrian is speaking to his new charge, Levi, about what he knows of pain, loss, and the consequences of our actions.
I smiled wanly. “That just about sums it up. Don’t worry about me, Levi. I’m used to the pain.”
“How to you mean?” Levi asked as he pulled up the chair from the far wall and sat across from me by the foot of Marie’s bed.
“I have seen a lot of pain in my life, and I’ve watched a lot of loved ones die.”
“Maybe you can tell me a little about that. We’d just be in the way while the brains do their work anyway.”
I nodded in agreement and sat up straighter. “Levi, I have seen things; horrible things, terrible things, awesome things, and wonderful things. I have felt elation at success, and crushing disappointment at failure.” I looked steadily at Levi and continued. “I have lived through the primary moral development of our modern society. I lived and worked through the morally ambiguous days when no one cared if you killed someone, when an ideal was enough to commit horrible acts of violence on innocent people. I have dirtied my soul over and over again simply for the advancement of my idiom and my affiliations.” I slumped forward in my chair and put my head in my hands.
“There’s something that you don’t seem to understand, Mr. Martin,” Levi stated plainly. “The fact that you see these things as being wrong means that your soul is still intact. Who we are is not just what we do, but how we handle the repercussions of what we have done.”
“You are wise beyond your years, Levi,” I said sliding back into my chair and smiling at him.
“Nah, I just have a pretty strong feel for right and wrong, and I know that those two things are not often black and white, but simply varying shades of gray. The right thing changes according to geography, social climate, and personal opinion.”
“Well, that’s the problem. When society says it’s wrong and I was mandated to do it anyway, then the guilt for that act lies squarely on my shoulders.”
“Don’t give me that crap, Adrian. If that were true, then every soldier and sailor in the military would be sent to prison the second they retired from service. What are they doing if not serving to perpetuate the idiom of the people they represent? The fact is that some things in this world are so horrible that action must be taken against those things.”
“But that doesn’t solve the problem, Levi,” I said with passion. I felt my emotions flaring. “Taking lives is not an answer to a problem. Saving a person’s life by taking other lives is never a right answer.”
“So, what is the right answer? Prison? Exile? Prison and exile just creates more and other problems.”
I looked directly into Levi’s eyes. “Have you ever taken a life Levi?”
Without flinching, he answered me. “I have, sir.”
“Can you justify that taking of life in your heart?”
“I have, sir.”
“Was it vengeance? Was it idealism? Or was it to fill a basic human need?”
“I killed my parents’ murderers,” Levi stated in a flat, matter-of-fact tone.
“And how do you justify that?”
Levi thought for a moment and smiled. “Justice was served according to the mores of our society.”
“What do you mean?”
“I died in the resulting shootout.”
I smiled widely at that. “You look pretty good for a dead guy.”
“The point is that I took my vengeance, and I paid the price required by our society,” he said with a looming satisfaction.
“Then think about this, Levi,” I retorted. “What kind of guilt do you think the officer that shot you feels over your death? Where is the justice for him? What gives you the right to put that guilt and remorse on him?”
This took Levi aback. He was quiet for a long time, and I let him sit and think about it. What lives have we changed with a flip response to someone's quiet call for help? What situations have we exasperated by choosing not to take action? Distancing and avoidance are courses of action too, and often have just as damaging results.
No comments:
Post a Comment