Saturday, June 16, 2012

Closer than we care to think?

So I overheard a conversation the other day. A woman was relating the story of how when she gets to work she makes sure to set the alarm on her car. She does that to wake up the people who had been sleeping in their car at a local parking lot. She made it clear to the woman she was talking to that of course she was locking her car, but that she intentionally armed it so it would honk. Thus waking the those in the car because "they should be up anyway". That night I watched a movie made in the thirties called "The Black Legion". It stars Humphrey Bogart as a regular guy who gets passed over for a promotion that is then given to an immigrant. This sets him up for recruitment by an organization that is like the KKK in beliefs. It is a movie that shows the transition of this man from a good guy who just wants to provide the best for his family to an arrogant, mean bully. Eventually he is so caught up in the hatred that surrounds him, that his wife leaves him and he winds up killing the only real friend he has. It made me wonder, How far is the road between the careless words of the woman and the actions of the character in the film? It rung a bell because the character in the movie started his downward spiral because of something very small. Words. They were the hateful words of others that he listened to and accepted, and it reminded me of the callous sounding words I had heard earlier in the day. The woman seemed to think it was funny to wake these people up, that it was not a big deal to show such a small unkindness. The question begs to be answered, how far is it from something small, like a few words, to something that hurts feelings? Or hurts physically? How far do we travel before it becomes something bad, even evil? I am still not sure, but I wonder if it is shorter than we care to think. "The tongue has the power of life and death...". Proverbs 18:21...