it has never been the triumphs in our lives that make us better people..it has always been our soul sinking failures.
it is easy to be great in good times but freaking hard to be good when things are careening downhill.
it comes down to commitment and belief...are we committed to what we believe in and do we believe in commitment in living our beliefs. do we even believe in anything?
I read on line this morning around the 200 plus dogs seized in baltimores dog fighting rings. these people did not believe in making the world, their community, their families..themselves... better people, better places to be...they were in it for the sense of power, the thrill, the high, the money, the inclusion of shared illicit, violent camaraderie... whatever orgasmic feelings they seek by winning.
I bet few of them are sitting in their jail cells thinking about their cruelty, regretting their actions...feeling guilty. most of them are most likely blaming someone else for getting caught, planning how to escape the consequences, and bragging to others about what great winners in the dog fighting rings they actually are.
Michael vick was given the perfect opportunity by his global fail as a human being to build something good out of the ashes of all of the innocent dogs he had tortured and killed..did he use it? or did he just keep his head down, put in the time for his crime and try to slip back under the wire to a life that he felt had personal value. Michael vick did not believe that his failures had value...only winning did.
and here is the thing about dog fighting...the humans involved do not win a god damn thing...it is the dogs who bleed, who fight for their lives, it is the dogs who suffer greatly every moment in and out of the ring to survive. the humans just get high on the pain and suffering...on the blood shed by another.
it is a sport of weak men and cowards.
when some of those blood sport kingmen grow up and learn that they really are true humanity failures..maybe then they will find the guts to take on the world they have poisoned and corrupted and work to make it good and whole again.
that would take courage, that would take strength and guts..the question becomes do any of them have those true traits of champions within them?
Amen Carol!