Practice Letting Go. It's Liberating.

My faith in humanity was shaken to the core by the events of the last few weeks: the murder of Dr. Tiller, shootings at the Holocaust Museum, and well before that the gunman who killed 13 at an immigrants' resource center, etc. etc.

In all of these instances, it seems to me, these horrible deeds were perpetrated by people who simply could not let go of the past. It is especially the case with Von Brunn. He was a master at holding grudges, going back to his college years. That is almost 70 years of holding grudges for the 88-year old man. How tormented in mind must he be that he simply cannot get over the events over his whole life?

As Frank Rich writes in his column, there has been an increased volume of hatred coming out that is bordering upon some sort of eschatological "purgation and annihilation." These people are so incapable of grasping the events of the recent past that all they see is the end of the world as they know it. It is as if they are so pathologically obsessed with the past that all they see is the culmination of all of their past fears in some sort of an armagedon. What is neglected, of course, is the present. They can't wrap their heads around the fact that Obama is now the president, their anger fueled by Palin, Limbaugh, Hannity, O'Reilly, all they are able to say is "kill, kill, kill." Limbaugh, and other were around even before Palin, but Palin really made hatred fashionable, gave it a pretty face. I really, really resent her for giving hatred a pretty face.

I think that what we need to do as a nation is to focus on the present. And the present looks bleak. 1 in 10 out of work, possibly more. People are hurting. Children are not being fed. How can we possibly miss that?

I read somewhere that when debris is burned, it is the rats and cockroaches that come out first. Our nation is undergoing a transformation with a black president. We are changing, but it is not just us. The whole world is changing. So we are symbolically burning our past in order for us to be free of it. So that we may now forge a new future. We don't know what the future holds, and to guess would to drive ourselves crazy. So while I realize that it is necessary for these crazies to come out, I hate to see lives lost at the hands of these crazies. Why is some of humanity this way?

So those of us feeling shaken just as I am, let's practice letting go. It's liberating. It helps us deal with the present, and helps us get ready for what is coming.