Thinking out loud has been the privilege between/among friends since time immemorial.
And I shared my thoughts with my friend the other night – the thoughts burning in my soul since the flood devastated the Christian summer camp for girls, Camp Mystic, in Texas. Accountability was at the heart of our give-and-take on the subject.
He said, “People’s been dying in rivers and hurricanes for a long time in Louisiana.” He mentioned the aftermath of Katrina, August Poseidon’s scorned paramour, of 2005.
Apples and oranges, clearly.
Besides, his words minted in the factory of fatalism failed to soothe my soul.
The soot-stained lesson I had learned at the feet of Prof. Elie Wiesel held the Auschwitz embers in its ashen heart.
“My friend,” I said, “it isn’t our place to forgive and forget the loss of the innocent lives.” I paused to corral my anguished thoughts. “It is for the grieving parents of the young souls swept away in the flash flood alley to come to terms with the loss of the light of their hearts.”
Professor Wiesel’s words during an anguished lecture echoed in my soul: “Yes, we can fight with God, we can indict God, and with due reverence we can even curse at God.”
But first we must fight man’s inhumanity to man and woman.
I hope the bereaved parents of the children lost in the flash flood alley would rise emboldened and invigorated by the spirit and sentiment of my teacher’s words; I hope the grieving parents molt into their habiliment of humanity sans caste, creed and color, and hold people accountable for the deaths of their innocent children.
“Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”
