Okay, instead of using this space to talk about my retarded handling of my retardedness, I’ll just ramble on about what I heard on NPR tonight.
They were talking about the people who bury the unclaimed in Iraq. People are being killed all the time in Bagdad and for the most part their bodies are immediately claimed by their families and given a proper burial.
During Saddam’s regime, when political prisoners were tortured and killed, if no one came to claim the bodies, they were thrown into a pit for dogs to eat. A man saw this and knew it was wrong. He put together a group and they went to the morgues and started claiming the unclaimed bodies. They gave them a proper and respectful burial. He does this for no charge.
He said he had hoped with Saddam gone his activities would decrease or even cease. He was wrong. His work has increased ten-fold as suicide bombings and sniper attacks and kidnappings and beheadings and all that increase. He takes all unclaimed bodies regardless of religion or sect. He takes them all because they all deserve a proper burial. They deserve repsect even in death.
He even takes the bodies of the suicide bombers. He makes no distinction, he buries them all in the cemetery, even those who we would say do not deserve it. He is poor, living in Bagdad’s slums. He does this because his religion teaches him that you never allow a dead body to be defiled, not even that of a dog’s. He does it because regardless of what a person has done, they are still human and they deserve at least that much respect.
I want to have that respect in my heart. I want to be able to say “you have done terrible things but still i would do for you a charitable thing”. I wish I could be that person. I wish I could say, “you wronged me, you did this thing to me, still I hold you dear. I will give you what ou need”.
At the very least, most of the people I treat with neutrality. Very few are ever looked upon with enmity. I have much to learn from those people. They are the ones I need to reconcile. One day at least.