;)
Shh, what was that your life was saying?
Wednesday, December 5, 2007 at 10:30PM Here’s a phrase to ponder:
“a suicide bomber detonated in a crowded marketplace today”
The phrase strikes me as odd, because it wasn’t the bomb that detonated. It wasn’t that the bomber detonated the bomb. I have an image of a person with no explosive materials strapped to his body, walking into a crowd of people and just… Boom. I’m not trying to be funny here either. In order for a person to willingly kill oneself as a suicide bomber, to kill oneself while trying to takea bunch of other people along for the ride, well, it seems to me that such a person might actually have to detonate inside in some way.
I have to work on this one, and verify the phrasing of the article.
In a completely unrelated context, I heard the phrase “Let your life speak.” It was identified as a Quaker saying. I have pondered it all day, marvelling at the lovely simplicity of it. Wondering how my life speaks for me. Paired with the suicide bomber, the phrase is really rather different. When he detonated, was that his life speaking? Or was that his death speaking? Are they separate?
Did the boy in Omaha today detonate too, with a gun instead of a bomb?
Reader Comments (1)
I think you're right that something on the inside, some bit of selfhood, must detonate when acts of extreme violence (to self, to others) occur. My guess is that the bombers would say their life is speaking through their death, that these are acts of faith and self-sacrifice that will earn them special consideration in the next existence.
From the outside, looking at and sympathizing with the victims, that's hard to understand. They believe in something or someone that is incredibly important to them. The question therein is: what would you do for something that important? Their life speech as I see it is that this cause and faith are important enough to end lives. Doesn't make it more palatable or right, but they won't have been the first to do such things, and they won't be the last. Is it wrong to condemn faith? Yes. Is it wrong to condemn violence? No. Depending on your perspective, one might be more right to condemn than another.
Hopefully our lived lives are speaking volumes, as we try to be compassionate, caring human beings...love our friends and family...and try to make the world a better place. I'm not sure everyone agrees on what that place looks like, ultimately. Maybe that's the real problem.