Feeding frenzy

This week I gave myself an early Christmas present. I bought a copy of Peter Kaminsky’s Fly Fisherman’s Guide to the Meaning of Life and started reading it. In one of the first few chapters, he describes striped bass in a feeding frenzy in terms that reminded me of years ago when I fished for stripers and bluefish off Cape Cod and Martha’s Vineyard.

“Bass! Thousands of them, all around us.Mad with bloodlust. Heedless of our boat. They banged against it with their bodies as they  chomped their way through  the ball of bait...."

the charm of fishing is that it is the pursuit of what is elusive but attainable,

a perpetual series of occasions for hope

Photo by J. Harrington

Unfortunately, it also made me think about  the way too many of us are reacting to various bits and pieces of news these days. No matter which group we’re in, we seem to be in a perpetual feeding frenzy over the wrongs committed by the other side. One example: there was a photo of a group of House members kneeling in prayer on the House floor and social media promptly became enraged about the start of a christo-fascist era. The series of reactions online was distressingly like bloodlust, and yet...

Doesn’t each house of Congress have a chaplain? Doesn’t our money claim “In God We Trust?” Should we be offended by those expressions of belief? As long as such belief doesn’t become mandatory, I think not. I’m a devout agnostic so I’m sensitive about that.

The Hamas-Israeli war seems to allow no acknowledgement that there is a long history of hostility that remained unresolved for too long. Now there is little tolerance for acknowledging degrees of fault on either side or with world powers for lack of leadership.

Will we now move from book banning to book burning? Isn't distorting and failing to acknowledge history part of what’s triggering Middle East hostilities? Shouldn’t we focus on teaching our children how to think rather than what to think? As we continue to be in each other’s faces and at each other’s throats, have we ever stopped to wonder who it is that thinks they benefit by keeping US in a feeding frenzy on each other?

I’m not here to propose solutions as much as I’m trying to point out we seem to be getting played, and have been for a long time. I grew up in a neighborhood where we kids taught  each other “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” If that’s not good enough, let’s remember that our “Judeo-Christian” culture is largely based on the teachings of someone who proposed “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.” That  leaves me out. What  about you? Never mind tenderness and love, Let’s try to start (again) with a little tolerance.

This Morning I Pray for My Enemies

Joy Harjo     1951 – 

And whom do I call my enemy?
An enemy must be worthy of engagement.
I turn in the direction of the sun and keep walking.
It’s the heart that asks the question, not my furious mind.
The heart is the smaller cousin of the sun.
It sees and knows everything.
It hears the gnashing even as it hears the blessing.
The door to the mind should only open from the heart.
An enemy who gets in, risks the danger of becoming a friend.

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