Every week, probably every day if we only knew of it, some large or small violation of basic human rights reminds us that always there will be conflict between individuals or groups of people. I have been wondering if I have ever been unhappy enough with anyone or with any group to even wish them harm. If there was a time when I was a child, I have washed it out of my memory. Oh, there is that time, I remember, when I was in seventh grade and the county nurse came to give shots. I was standing in line behind Max Grant, God rest his soul, and he started to cry just before the nurse got to him... and I was delighted because Max was the tough guy, the bully of the class. I should perhaps like to feel regret now looking back on it because I heard later when we were about forty that Max had died. I remember at that time hoping that his death had not been painful or hard. Perhaps that small feeling of sadness will have to do as penance.

NO MAN IS AN ISLAND

No man is an island,
Entire of itself.
Each is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promantory were,
As well as if a manner of thine own
or of thy friends’s were.
Each man’s death diminishes me,
For I am involved in mankind.
Therefore, send not for whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee.

John Donne