The sun is shining, a long bank holiday weekend looms ever nearer, and the potential for a break from the treadmill should elicit a lightness of spirit.
And then the news comes on the radio, and each new individual or military atrocity dims the sunshine, and questions the possibility of a better tomorrow.
Much as I would like to see the progress made over the years for those groups, those sections of society that suffered because of who they were, as an example of man’s strides towards a better way; much as I hope that the lack of animosity between old adversaries is an example that will be carried forward by those in the midst of current strife; much as there should always be a peaceful solution to the destruction and dislocation in the world – I don’t see it.
For every small step forward, every painful advance away from previous suffering, oppression, denigration, there are those determined to push back, retrace those steps, bring back the darkness.
I used to hold to the concept that the main difference between man and the rest of the animal kingdom was that, along with the baser instincts for survival and the genetic imperative, there was a wider sense of commonality, community, society.
And as the distances between nations shrank, that the idea of society and a common aim would spread. That humanity would become the driving force.
And there is so much humanity in the world, but it is delivered by ones and twos, by tens and twenties. And the destruction, the devaluation of humanity is driven by the thousands, the millions – or at least in their name.
And when it is done in their name, in our name, too few, far, far too few say that it is not their wish, their aim, their inclination to deplete the lives of others for their own selfish needs.
Too often the majority is silent, and allows the perversity of Yemen, Syria, Crimea, Palestine, to continue. Because they accept the bullet point statements of the leaders, don’t question the repercussions.
The acceptance of a generalised, generated fear as the base for our view of the world will cause whatever humanity there is to wither, to wilt, to fade away.
The world we now have is splintering, separating, pulling apart along fault-lines of prejudice and the jingoistic hysteria of the extremes. They shout the loudest, because humanity works with a gentle voice.
It is becoming harder to hear each day, because the leaders are afraid to show gentleness, because power is fearful of empathy, and therefore looks to diminish it.
The acknowledgement that every life is of equal value, that every situation has two sides, that to save life is a more powerful sign of strength than to take one, that is where we need to be.
We are so far from that in so many places, I despair that we will ever get close to even where we used to be.
The sun still shines, but there seems less warmth.
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