(For anyone striving to live fully in this world of contradictions.)
The human condition is strange. At the moment, I'm under one roof with my closest human attachments - my mother, father, husband and daughter. It's warm and cozy here at my parent's home in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Just hours ago and in the cold wind, we drove out of the gates of FE Warren Air Force Base which operates 150 US intercontinental ballistic missiles. The missiles themselves sit in silos three stories underground; noticeable only by the wire fences and a few antennas sticking out on the vast plains of Wyoming, Nebraska and Colorado. Along with my father, a retired officer with the US Air Force, we have access to the base. We were there to exercise. Whether peacekeepers believing we should turn the other cheek, warriors believing we're here to defend and protect, or somewhere in between, the reality is we live in a world of paradox - one of the body and the soul - one of the sacred and the profane. That we can simultaneously hold in one hand our loved ones who reflect back on us and in the other, those we fear and who fear us; whom we'd destroy (along with ourselves) before they destroy us, is baffling. We have the choice to navigate or ignore such complexities - to notice those antennas above the missile silos or not. The only way for me to live fully in this world of contradiction is to tread lightly as I try to bring my gifts, (i.e. experience, abilities, and passions) to the universal table, hoping they can benefit others...and believing, as the Talmud says, that if I save (or impact) one life, it is as if I have saved the world.* Courtney A. Brown *Based on the saying from the Talmud - "whoever saves one life, it is as if he/she has saved the world." To send this note to a friend:
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