I bracket the always, ever wary of the universal claim.
Then I backpedal, just a bit. . .
Maybe we can say that deception is, perhaps, the most-often unrecognized and perpetrated act of violence by we humans.
Maybe? Perhaps? Could I qualify it into meaninglessness any more?
Deception tears us apart from within.
Now we're getting somewhere.
And deception is the handmaid of (physical) violence -- the lies we (must) tell ourselves to justify the violence we do, those particular forms of deception, are, by their very nature . . .
unending . . .
shocking in their daring . . .
infinite in their scope . . .
abyss-filling in their capacity destroying . . .
Jacob and Esau serve as paradigms . . . but their reality is achingly human . . . achingly broken . . . achingly true . . .
***
The shooting and the dying continue unabated (Gunman Used AK47 in IHOP Shooting) and we tell ourselves that the profits made from the weapons of destruction have no bearing on the destruction . . . no place in the conversation . . . no impact on our ‘rights’ to be bearers of such destruction . . .(Gun Violence in NYC)
We need not be an infinite string of Jacobs and Esaus locked in eternal combat . . . like the brothers, we too can find the pathway to peace . . . beginning with forgiveness, reconciliation, and putting down our arms, our 'right to be right' . . . and embracing each other in the love and Spirit of God.
We can.
