I looked out at the voluminous cloud banks beneath us, the golden rays of sunlight filtering through and exposing patches of green below, and all the glory of a heavenly realm that for centuries has eluded humankind and didn't feel a thing. I was not amazed at what was happening, but it truly is an amazing, and recent, development. Throughout history we have been obsessed with flight. We, as a people, have been in awe of the world above us. So now we are endowed, by jumps in technological understanding and radical feats of engineering, with the power of flight.
Violent crime is also a crime generated by a lack of awe.
Humans are also tremendous feats of engineering and design. We unconsciously keep the pump circulating blood, dream, remember, hope. But people take up a gun, or hammer, knife, whatever, and wage war on each other, here in the States and elsewhere. There is so much we don't understand about the human body, much less the depths of personhood, that people perpetuating violence probably never consider before they discard a human life. It struck me again at work this morning when someone turned on the overhead lights.