An Offering

Candlelit vigils, Kleenex, insensitive news media, American violence, gun control, murder, capitalism and democracy, 157 Iraqis, loneliness, college campuses and their supposed joie de vivre, immigrant difficulties, terror, Korea, Holocaust, professors, dorm, students, outrage, shock, grief, isolation, Virginia, fear.. Silence. On our refrigerator in Chicago hangs a serenity prayer called "Desiderata". I recall staring at it, bleary-eyed, while sitting at the kitchen table and finishing papers on a late-night wind during the high school years. One sentence stays with me, and I hope it will forever: "In all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, the world is still a beautiful place." All I can do now is just breathe and search within for compassion.