Some Days Are Worse Than Others

Earlier I watched a movie titled Gran Torino which was produced and directed (and starred in) by Clint Eastwood. All I can say is, "That's my kind of movie."

In the story the young boy asks Eastwood (who is an aging Korean War veteran), "What's it like to kill a man?" The elderly hardcase says, "You don't want to know."

And in the past I have heard that same statement issue forth from the lips of soldiers of various wars, from veterans of World War II, the Korean War, and the soldiers who came back from service in the Vietnam Conflict.

I cannot say from personal experience what it's like to kill a man.

But I have a vivid imagination.

Imagine this -- Imagine being 70 years old and each day of your life you are forced by an unforgiving conscience to recall a series of wrongs (seemingly minor at the time they were committed) that you have perpetrated on others over those many long years, and now in your mind you re-live each moment, seeing the tears form in the corners of your loved one's eyes and then slowly roll down her cheek, and you see, in detailed closeup, the quivering of her lower lip as she holds back the hurt your thoughtless words and cruel actions have caused her.

And remember along with that the many other similar evils you have done to other family members, friends, and acquaintances -- all in the name of heedless vanity, in the pursuit of serving self.

Then you might get a glimpse into the terrible pain a killer must feel to remember, again and again throughout a lifetime, having committed the most horrendous sin of having taken away the life of another human being.

Just imagine.

. . .

This is not a day for me to be blogging.