POEM: Love Is Scored

He did
Not necessarily
Believe
In
Though he found it
Much easier
To commit
Than endure
And hear in lies
Won lessen
As is scored

The man who speaks of the enemy is the enemy himself. Bertolt Brecht quote PEACE BUTTONThis poem is a tribute to apologists for everywhere.  The lesser of two evils is perhaps the all- most popular shortcut.  Unfortunately, when is embraced, is cut loose.  The “necessity” is actually an abnegation of agency altogether, pretending that no choice exists.  Of course, where there is no choice, there is no , or perhaps more conveniently, no immorality.  So much for marching on!  For you can't have without its twin: , that bully The face of the enemy frightens me only when I see how much it resembles mine. Stanislaw J. Lec quote PEACE BUTTONUltimately, one's own is morphed out of existence into an other's .  He “made me” do it.  As we become an — and amoral — force for precious , we polish a veneer of , all the wile avoiding personal for our own actions.  Most simply put, we become mirrorly a consequence of evil, our agency be dammed! We become an effect of evil rather than a cause for good.  Morality necessarily involves restraint, the project of limiting our , hopefully to good , among all possible .  The key point is that it focuses on self-restraint, not other-restraint.  It's hard to fight an enemy who has outposts in your head. Sally Kempton quote PEACE BUTTONThis shift of focus on accountability of others, presumably punishing evil, is classical psychological of one's own shadow, dark side, evil onto an other.  No doubt, evil happens.  No doubt, evil costs dearly.  Projecting all responsibility onto others serves the convenient purpose of shifting the cost away from our own costly choices.  No doubt, morality is costly — just as evil is.  Enduring these costs is the stuff of a moral .  This is the price of true .  Evil runs over the good for evil ends, for its own sake.  Good revels in the good for its own sake, and somewhat paradoxically, lifts up, invites true freedom for others' sake as well   If No Enemy Within Enemy Without Cannot Harm--PEACE QUOTE BUTTONHalf of the moral is the to live into what we know to be good.  Half of the moral is enduring the inescapable effects of evil, what we no to be evil.  Only knows the half-life of evil.  While it may be a truism that we do not get out of this life alive, we can live more than a half-life.  May you live fully!  Moral choices may be unclear.  Moral choices may be extraordinarily difficult.  Still, moral choices are always a choice.  To deny this is the paltry heights of and a brutal equivalency of evil with good.

May you find wide-open stronger than shadowy in your life.

Who is a hero? He who turns his enemy into a friend. The Talmud quote PEACE BUTTONTransforming hatred of the enemy into compassion lies at the core of all religions. Sister Helen Prejean quote PEACE BUTTONOur enemies opinion of us comes closer to the truth than our own. Francois La Rochefoucauld quote PEACE BUTTONPEACE QUOTE: Met Enemy He Is Us PEACE SIGN BUTTONIn the practice of tolerance, one's enemy is the best teacher. Dalai Lama quote PEACE BUTTON

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