With thanks to Samme!  :)

This is hard to watch.  I cried.  It's so sad to see her life wasted.  I understand that it is possible for a person to be in a place where they basically have no moral compass.  I think at some points in my life I got close to that place myself.  I also hear a contradiction in her story she tells.  There's this and that.  Back and forth. 

A reverence for life includes a reverence for the life of each human being.  If we can't teach each other this-- if we can't learn this, then we must change the way we do things until we can teach and learn respect and compassion.  This is possible, so we should do it.

The only people condemned to life in prison should be hopeless psycho- or sociopaths, which are people who don't have a conscience.  The woman in this video may not be a spotless person, but I think she is showing some genuine and congruent emotions.  I think she is capable of learning to live as a heart-centered human being among others.  The way things are going, the only chance she will have to do that is to live as a heart-centered human being in a prison among other prisoners.  I hope that she will do that.  The heart of the universe is generous and loving.  I'm sending her some of mine.  And let's not forget to send our compassion to the pimp, the other girls, the johns, and the families of those involved. 

Maybe it's the cultural myths where we get to tell ourselves that we're "better" than those who aren't into prostitution and drugs that keep us blind to and tolerant toward the oozing sores that fester on the surface of our society.  What would we do about them if we really cared?

I went to see a good friend today, and by her invitation caught her just before she marched in a Veteran's Day observance (although four days late, no big deal).  This is in a 55 and over community in Mesa, Arizona.  The picture above is purloined from some place on the internet, but very similar to the get-together of today. 

I happened to walk in on the side by the choir, and they needed extra singers, so they asked me to sing.  One should always say Yes to that request, if possible.  So I stood there with them, and sang Rock of Ages and The Star Spangled Banner.  I watched my friend come in with the veterans who lived there.  We sang the Canadian anthem, too, because we were also honoring Remembrance Day. 

About 20 people from this senior community had died since the last Veteran's Day observance, so when their names were read, friends and family came up to light a candle in their memory, until the table in front of the podium was filled with burning candles.  I've always liked the metaphor of the burning candle to signify a person's soul.  I thought it was a beautiful ceremony.

The speaker who facilitated and lead the event was a minister of some type, and told us that the community is a battlefield.  What she meant by that was that we must join together to create a community of Life in the face of Death.  I thought that was a great idea, but I'm not sure that Battlefield is the metaphor I would choose.  Could we not be a field of light?  Or a growing vine with fruit?  Or something without a "fighting" thing going on?  I think it's useless to fight death, unless you are recovering from a disease, and then you are necessarily becoming whole and healthy more than "fighting", I guess.  Even though you are expending quite a bit of energy, it's the positive thing that we must focus on, to foster and nurture Life.

But, on the whole, the community has more positive going on with it than negative, and my friend was happy to enjoy her place.