I heard many people say how horrible it was that the attacks which took place in Sri Lanka happened on Easter. I think it’s horrible they happened, but if it had to happen, Easter was the day for it.
I wanted to be mad when I first heard of the brutality and severity of the attacks. I wanted to lash out in response. How could people be so deprived of humanity to carry out such horrific killings. But it was Easter and that fact kept raring up in my mind like a giant stop sign. It was the day the Jesus said with his dying breath, “Forgive them Lord for they know not what they do.”
Forgive. Love. How do you do that in this case?
As a Christian, I am in pursuit of what John Wesley described as perfect love – the love God gives us. But I don’t know if I can attain that in these circumstances. Love your enemies is another message from Jesus who told us we really we’re not loving unless it was for someone who was against us, our enemy. The people who killed so many Eastern morning in Sri Lanka – love them?
If it wasn’t for Easter being in my face, I wouldn’t be able to come close to even thinking this, which is the first step to forgiveness and love. I get it. Love is the water on the fire of evil. I just don’t know if I can be the fireman right now. I always thought the island of Sri Lanka looked like a teardrop of India. Today we weep for Sri Lanka. Perhaps that is the first drops of Love where evil and hatred have raged.
I am going to bring my story into the discussion, but my intent is not to trivialize what happened in Sri Lanka by doing so. I do want to discuss a shared issue – that of taking another’s life. I want to say we, but perhaps it’s only me who has become callus to the idea of murder and justified homicide in fiction. Dark op espionage agents kill bad guys – it’s a given. But is it? And is it OK even if it is a given? Should I condone such actions in my story? When I wrote the story, I didn’t have a second of thought about it. It’s fiction. It’s not real. True. But does accepting it on a fictional level harden our hearts and souls to it in everyday life?
I will keep the story as it is because this horror and the discussion of these questions mirror the circumstances and ultimate quest of the main character. The central question facing Lisa Cunningham is can she reclaim, rehabilitate, her heart and soul by returning to the mountains of Idaho? Can she soften her soul enough to love? Love herself? Love others?
I hope and pray we all find a way to keep our souls soft.
Enjoy the read, TC Robinson
Robinson Write Now 