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Our Mysterious Human Yearning

The massive explosion in Beirut, Lebanon, left a horrific scene of physical and human devastation. 


Apparently, poor management and lax safety regulations caused the accident. 


My heart goes out to the people there. After seeing the videos of the explosion and the terrible aftermath of human loss and injury, it’s hard to imagine how the city will recover. 


They were already far into an economic crisis as well as battling Covid-19. 


But the human spirit has a way of surviving unbelievable catastrophes. There is something deep in all of us that clings to hope and to an undeniable longing to keep going. Even in the face of enormous loss and suffering. 


In Stephen King’s novel, “The Stand,” a story about a deadly virus that destroys 99% of the American population, a character who survives says, “No one can tell what goes on in between the person you were and the person you become. No one can chart that blue and lonely section of hell. There are no maps of the change. You just come out the other side. Or you don't.”


This is a universal truth, whatever catastrophe one may experience. And so, so often, people do come out on the other side of their personal calamity and misery to take life in their arms and love it again. 


The Beirut disaster, and even this seemingly endless virus, reminds all of us of our innate impulse, our divine spark, our mysterious human yearning, to survive the absolute worst in life. And to crawl if we have to into the beauty and potential of a new day. 


That is no syrupy pep talk to ignore the immense pain of life. It is simply a stubborn and realistic fact. Something amazing within us hungers to endure until the bitter or better end. 


It gives meaning and hope to our fragile and vulnerable existence. 


(c) 2020 Timothy Moody

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