It seems that it feels more and more difficult to keep one’s moral values above the water line these days. It is difficult to know where to turn and how to keep the sludge and mire of today’s world away from one’s soul and inner child. I say inner child because of a passage in the New Testament where the disciples, I think, were trying to prevent some children from approaching Jesus and Jesus basically said, ‘Unless you are like one of these, you will not enter the Kingdom of God.’ And I have always taken that to heart in the sense of keeping a sense of wonder about the world and all of its complexities and also loving others as yourself and helping even despised strangers who need help.

It’s not always easy to keep that inner child alive because of the ways of the world where there is so much anger and cruelty directed at people whom one has never met. But due to group dynamics and the need to belong to some clan, one can adopt these wicked thoughts and actions in order to belong.