OK. The usual morning ritual of the past ten or so years - turning on CNN with the morning coffee - had been abandoned lately. Tales of ISIS, Ebola, murderers and politicians had become just to, shall we say, too much.
Yet with a deafening inner silence that could not be blotted out with Yanni on Pandora, desperation drove me to the TV remote. And what a blessing appeared on the screen. A middle-aged, plump Vietnamese woman stood at a podium and she was talking about forgiveness. This obviously well-groomed, well-fed woman had been the iconic image of a napalmed human being during the Vietnam War. The picture seen round the world, captured by a journalist, shows her pre-pubescent naked body running toward the camera, her clothes burned off her body, with an expression and body language evoking hell on earth.
Today, she was honoring the Vietnamese photographer who shot the photo, and who had also taken her to a nearby hospital where her life was saved after his journalistic coup de grace.
She said, "He could have just done had his job and be gone, but he went the extra mile. That is what we all need to do now. Go the extra mile. I have forgiveness and am now the happiest person on earth because the kingdom of God is within me."
Then she pointed to the elderly photographer who had carried her that extra mile. He was still taking her picture.
Segway to TV remote ritual before bedtime (not advised by psychologists and sleep experts by the way). Low and behold, more tales of salvation. This time the Brazilian Butt Lift. Women who already looked damned good in their bikinis waxed rhapsodic about the new and improved butt burner that took away that extra quarter inch of fat and gave them the smoothest butt God could have ever bestowed on them. They seemed ever more grateful than the Vietnamese miracle of humanity (no sarcasm here).
What kind of upside down world do we live in, folks?
Yet with a deafening inner silence that could not be blotted out with Yanni on Pandora, desperation drove me to the TV remote. And what a blessing appeared on the screen. A middle-aged, plump Vietnamese woman stood at a podium and she was talking about forgiveness. This obviously well-groomed, well-fed woman had been the iconic image of a napalmed human being during the Vietnam War. The picture seen round the world, captured by a journalist, shows her pre-pubescent naked body running toward the camera, her clothes burned off her body, with an expression and body language evoking hell on earth.
Today, she was honoring the Vietnamese photographer who shot the photo, and who had also taken her to a nearby hospital where her life was saved after his journalistic coup de grace.
She said, "He could have just done had his job and be gone, but he went the extra mile. That is what we all need to do now. Go the extra mile. I have forgiveness and am now the happiest person on earth because the kingdom of God is within me."
Then she pointed to the elderly photographer who had carried her that extra mile. He was still taking her picture.
Segway to TV remote ritual before bedtime (not advised by psychologists and sleep experts by the way). Low and behold, more tales of salvation. This time the Brazilian Butt Lift. Women who already looked damned good in their bikinis waxed rhapsodic about the new and improved butt burner that took away that extra quarter inch of fat and gave them the smoothest butt God could have ever bestowed on them. They seemed ever more grateful than the Vietnamese miracle of humanity (no sarcasm here).
What kind of upside down world do we live in, folks?
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