Humanity

We're getting ready to head to the mainland and travel down to London in a couple of hours, and, frankly, the news just isn't being very cheery about our trip. My first time in London should be spent with me gaping and gasping at the sights, giving myself away as a complete tourist and depending on Ben to helpfully lead me through traffic and save me from all collisions or straying. My head should be upturned, my ever-widening eyes desperately taking every sight in, vacuuming up every image to be shaken out of my memory at a later, less visually tempting time. My arm should be looped through Ben's out of safety, I'll admit, more than romance, since my sightseeing should take number one priority over observing the little green men or red "HALT" hands on the streets. This is how my holiday should be spent. Instead, it seems I may have to be aware of the bracing sound of police sirens, the jolting and unnerving image of store front windows being smashed into a million tiny pieces, fire and aimless distruction, and general mayhem. This, I say, is utter madness. I have never understood the idea of destroying one's own backyard. Violence is an unfortunate part of this life to which I have devoted many, many hours of study. While my passion to hope for a thoroughly peaceful world has been brought down from an ironically violent, raging boil to a more realistic and patient (but still constant) simmer, I still am left with a pained expression on my wide-eyed face, and a disappointed tightness in my chest when I see such awful violence and meaningless anger. No forward movement is made by the breaking down of both property and human character. Violence lends itself to violence. The halls of history have had this echo of truth reverberating off of their surfaces for all time.
The ferry from Eigg to the mainland will cut its way through the stormy gray waters in less than an hour, so I must rush my overpacked bag across our single-track road and off to the pier. I apologize to my fine readers for leaving you with a less-than-chipper post today, but this blog is meant to share my ideas of truth and love, and I feel it would be a lie to shield you from my actual thoughts. Truth and love, it has become clear to me as well, are sometimes just as painful as they are beautiful.
With that, I will leave you and return at the end of August, hopefully nearly bursting with tales of London and Paris - our second destination. Cheers! Au revoir!