Violence strikes somewhere every moment of every day. At least, so it seems. Most of the time we view it from afar. It’s not in my neighborhood or my town or my city (even if it is we find a way to lie to ourselves).

The reality is that for some, it is a moment by moment fact of existence. I really can’t relate. I have never been directly exposed beyond the occasional fist fight in school. Even those died out by high school in my sheltered little town.

But, it did happen outside of town. It even happened in town, we just didn’t hear about it. And, it was always someone over reacting to some perceived slight or a debt or even an argument over a ball game. It was person on person, human on human.

I wondered then, how could people who say they have a faith, could do that to each other. Was their faith real? Did it actually mean something and guide their lives? No one could ever explain it to me.

I grew and went to school. And on those hallowed grounds of learning and faith, violence happened yet again. My friend was shot. He spent months in the hospital and then the rest of his life in a wheel chair. But, he came back to school, though the crime was never solved, and showed what a faith can become.

Even so, he could not explain where the ability to commit such violence on another human comes from. We learned to encapsulate the feelings and the questions and put them to the side, living our lives from day to day.

Now, forty some years later, the questions are once again loose. The capsule is leaking.

In the last several weeks gun violence – one person on several – seems to be surging. Atlanta and scarcely a week later, Boulder. Then Saturday.

I came home to many, many official vehicles, crime scene tape, and numerous officers, all so focused they did not seem to see me. The barriers were 5 feet from my driveway. I pulled in and went inside. If they needed me, they would come to the door.

I didn’t know what had happened. And, I did not want to disturb them to ask. So, I quietly wondered. What might happen in this quiet and safe neighborhood that I have enjoyed for a little over 2 years that would bring such an overwhelming response.

And in my mind and my sleep, I kept waking up wondering whether someone had been shot. It was Easter morning when I learned, first from the newsfeed on my computer and 2 minutes later from a talk with a Deputy, there had been a shooting. One person hospitalized and another in custody.

It was just two houses away. Sure, I don’t know those neighbors except to wave at the kids and say hi. We have been pretty shut in with COVID. Still, they seemed nice.

How can people do that to one another? Is there no humanity in my world? I don’t want to think that. I try instead to provide some everyday to those I meet. Some I know well others I don’t, but I hold the door open anyway. I smile. And I greet them where they are, no expectations. Even if I didn’t have my faith, I would do that.

It isn’t really about faith. It is about people thinking others are not their equal in some way. That way we can say they are inferior and don’t deserve our respect and grace. And that is wrong!

Where is our humanity! It is lost in that kind of thinking. Can we find it again? Only by overcoming a way of thinking that diminishes others. And we must. For to fail in that endeavor is to completely lose our humanity, our potential, and our lives.