Remembering and Reflecting

This photo is of the larval case of a moth of the Psychidae family; we call them bagworms because of these "bags" they leave hanging on trees and shrubs.  The cocoons consist of silk spun by the larva and whatever material is at hand such as the leaves of the tree on which it hangs.  If in large numbers, they can strip a tree of foliage fairly quickly.  I remember as a child my father telling us that if we saw one to pull it off the tree and crush it.  He was very protective of his trees.

My spouse took this photo one day recently as we were out checking cattle along the edge of the woods.  The cocoon is illustrative of the attitude we often take; we try to blend into our surroundings and hide (although that isn't the purpose of a cocoon in the life cycle of this creature) in order to avoid facing something.  We build walls and cover our heads until all we must deal with is the most immediate; the rest of the world becomes irrelevant -- at least in our minds.

Today is a day of remembrance.  It is the anniversary of the attack on the World Trade Center in New York that was the single largest terrorist incident in our history.  It was a tragic event for those affected either directly, or indirectly.  It was a horrific occurrence that should not be forgotten.

We, as a proud country, reacted to the attack.  We sought out those who supported and incited the perpetrators and through our military response, hopefully prevented further attacks from occurring.  I am concerned though, that we have focused on the symptom and not the cause.  No, I am not one to say that we are to blame for someone attacking us, yet I wonder if our attitude toward other people contributed to the hatred for our country that led to such attacks.

This country is wealthy beyond anything ever known previously in history.  Many people see that wealth and are enraged by jealousy.  They don't see the good this country has done through the years of our existence; they instead see what they perceive as exploitation of resources by some companies at the expense of other nations.

Neither those in this country who see only that we were attacked, nor those in other countries who blame this country for their distressed conditions acknowledge that the issues are complex and driven by human motivations that are of the lowest form such as jealousy, greed, envy and hatred.  We pull ourselves into a cocoon and hide from the reality of the global political and economic situation which nurtures evil tendencies.

There are no easy answers, but pulling into our cocoons and hiding from the deep issues that fuel such feelings is not one of them.  It is an attitude of waiting until the next event that shakes us to our very foundations, just as the events 18 years ago did.  Life is too precious to be spent hiding from reality.  We, instead, need to be reaching across boundaries in an effort to come together with those who see things differently that we might prevent the cancerous growth which is constantly seeking to take root in our hearts which leads to such things.