Riots and the Enemy Within

Did ignorance burn the streets of Baltimore? Hatred?

Perhaps something darker. I speak of the stubborn self-deception that has rioted inside man since his self-discovery.

The enemy, that arch-fiend who has bided since the beginning. I do not speak religiously here, metaphorically rather...

Inauthenticity, self-deception -- call it what you will. There is no cure for the purest type of darkness, the black hole that sucks your loved ones and leaders into evil.

Sometimes I fear that even smiles and gestures of love have fallen to evil purpose.

Emily Dickinson loved man in his throes because there he speaks without deceit.

What do we do?

CNN quoted Leonard Bernstein and it resonated with me: "This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before."

The battle is all around us. It rages inside you right now. Sing a song, dance, cry, or lament..

Do not fall to the enemy. Stand strong in your devotion.