7/9/2023

Friend, JRB,

            As you prepare to head to NATO, please repeat our mantra, WINTA & do not sell F-16s to Erdogan!

            Have you read the Master & Margarita, the bizarre book written 1928-1940 in Russian & published in censored form in the USSR in 1966–67? Its magical realism is too complicated to describe but its theme of the role of evil in the world has stuck with me. Here’s how Mikhail Bulgakov put it: “But would you kindly ponder this question: What would your good do if evil didn’t exist, & what would earth look like if all the shadows disappeared? After all, shadows are cast by things & people…Do you want to strip the earth of all trees & living things just because of your fantasy of enjoying naked light? You’re stupid.”

            I am grappling with the co-existence of good & evil this morning after a conversation with a soon-to-be neighbor about whether there is that of God in Hitler. As a Jew, she can’t go there. As a Quaker, I often do.

            When I do, I conclude that I don’t hate Hitler, but I do hate the things he did. I don’t attribute his atrocities to him, rather to the systems he led his people to put in place. Many Germans followed him because he fed their fear. He cultivated their dark sides & they did his bidding believing it would bring them peace of mind. Of course, this was a false promise.

            As the Buddha reminds us, suffering exists. Our job is to control ourselves to the extent possible so that the suffering does not generate fear, because fear causes all kinds of problems.

MAH & his junta terrorize the people of Burma trying to scare them into submission, but they refuse to succumb. The same is true of VVP & his attack on Ukraine. I do not hate these men, but I do hate what they are doing. I hope they can get over their own fear to let their better selves shine through & turn their attention toward fighting climate change. It may sound silly, but uniting against a common enemy might give them a way out.

BYBS,