Don't just do something, stand there.

If you're local to the Asheville area, you probably heard about the tragic story of the Madden family. For reasons unknown, the mother of the family, Maddie, threw her 7 week old daughter, Shaylee, off of a 75 foot ravine. Today, the infant is safe and healthy and the mother is facing some serious charges and prison time.

I know I wasn't alone in my shock when I heard this news. People, mothers especially, have a difficult time comprehending the idea of throwing away, literally, a precious baby. Was she depressed? Psychotic? We don't know, but we can't help but feel completed estranged and alienated from this person who, from the outside, appeared completely normal and safe.

I felt so many feelings for this family and baby, but one of the most difficult ones for me to swallow was this: empathy. I didn't like this reality, and it made me extremely uncomfortable, but I knew I had to face the truth that I was equally as capable of committing such a heinous deed as this poor woman was. No matter how I spun the perspective, and no matter how many assurances I had of my love and desire for my baby, I couldn't deny that I was cut from the same fabric as Krista and equally as human.

We have a tendency to credit those on the news who have been apart of the most awful conspiracies, with a special strain of evil that we ourselves could never arbor. The men and women of history that played a role in things like the Holocaust and Rwandan genocide are all, in our heads, different creatures. Or at least products of an environment that we can't wrap our heads around.

In truth though, we all begin in the same place and are made with the same material. And although what happens to us and around us after our birth can be drastically different, I think it's safe to say that there is equal potential for every human to commit the same atrocities if faced with the same circumstances/conditioning.

Realizing this has been difficult, but nonetheless a liberating thing. Politically, socially, economically, emotionally, I have been called to readjust my perspective on the beliefs of those who I disagree with, and instead of entering into dialogue, whether in person or in my head, simply putting myself in their shoes and remembering that I am equally broken and mislead in my thinking.

A good example of this is the heated debate of abortion.

Ugh.

Two very disturbing photos. Both turn my stomach, and both are controversial.

The big argument favoring pro-choice begins and ends with the fact that women should be entitled to make decisions concerning their bodies, lives, and futures. The opposing argument, in favor of pro-life, counters that a woman is no longer simply making choices for herself, but another living human, once she becomes pregnant, who according to pro-lifers, is equally entitled to life and a future.

But it gets more complicated than simply having, "responsible sex" and using contraception when the intercourse is no longer consensual. What happens then, when a child is conceived by a woman who is not prepared to be a parent? Maybe she's 13, should she be required to carry a child to full term before she even has her sweet 16? These issues aside, what happens when a couple living in poverty conceive and, despite whether or not abortion is legalized, have decided that they want to terminate the pregnancy? Like the above picture depicts, is a coat hanger abortion an alternative we really want men and women to turn to?

It comes back to whether or not you actually believe that pregnancy means there is another living person involved.

It also returns to who and what you're living for. In our culture, abortion makes sense. It just does, because we each are told that we should live for ourselves. It is our right, and even our responsibility. If we don't look after ourselves, who will? Right?

Fundamentally, my views don't align with the solutions to these problems because I don't believe in living life for myself. I also believe that a fertilized egg, no matter how "evolved" it may be, is a human life. Others may disagree.

So here are the crossroads. What I have to remind myself of however, is that I myself am equally as capable of ripping out a baby with the end of a coat hanger as the desperate woman from across the tracks is. I have it in me to tell a woman to, "just relax and enjoy rape, if it's inevitable." and there is no differentiation between myself and the Doctor who places a newborn baby face down in saline solution to drown them.

This is where I find it necessary to remind myself that I cannot fully embrace the total amount of forgiveness I've been graced with if I cannot fully recognize my capacity for sin.

In the words of the Philosopher, Simone Weil, "Don't just do something, stand there." We will daily interact with those who we don't understand, who rub us the wrong way, or who even take part in, or support actions that we would categorize as barbaric. There is a time to speak out, and there is a time to act, but before any of our words or actions can be effective, we must first assume a posture that recognizes that we ourselves are barbarians, in desperate need of light and direction.