Reading (and thinking) about this topic brought to mind a quote I once read...
I looked it back up and I think it fits:
"Midway upon the journey of, this, our life
I found myself within a forest dark,
For the straighforward path had been lost.
I cannot well repeat how there I entered,
So full was I of slumber at the moment
In which I had abandoned the true way."
-Dante's Inferno
Canto I : Lines 1-3, 10-12
It saddens me to think that I cannot bring a child into a safe world. It saddens me that children are not free from hate. It saddens me that humanity, through all of its advances, has not spiritually evolved....
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Faced with the Divine, I was asked; "What one gift do you seek?"
I answered ever so meekly; "I seek Honor, Truth, Integrity, and Wisdom, yet those are four. How am I to choose?"
The answer came as a pounding whisper; "The four you seek are but one. I grant thee Compassion; for without it the four make none."
Author - me