Two things happened this week, that gave me thought to what this life is all about.  The first happened on Friday, November 13, 2015.  The Terrorist Attack that took place in Paris, France.  The second, happened on Saturday, November 14, 2015, the funeral of a person I know knew and loved, my dad’s sister Aunt ZoAnn Simmons.  

As we drove to Idaho to both visit my grandchildren and then go to a funeral, my wife and I listened to a book “Tuesdays with Morrie”.  The book is about a dying man’s wishes.  Morrie, a professor of Sociology, talks with an old student, Mitch, about his battle with ALS (Lu Gherig’s disease).  Mitch asks questions about his life and some of his current philosophy.  Some of the answers given, take Mitch a bit by surprise.  When all is said and done, I believe Morrie is trying to tell us all to forgive one another and then love each other with abandon.  These are the words of a man dying of an awful disease, no bitterness, just love for all those that come to visit him.  A message I believe would help us all.  I know the book gave me a lot of food for thought.

Friday, there was a terrorist attack in Paris, France.  A group that call themselves, ISIS, feel that their duty is to purge the world of anyone that would think differently than they do.  They have taken a word placed in the Koran by Mohammed, “JIHAD”, which being interpreted is: “The spiritual struggle within oneself against sin.”   This group has twisted it into meaning “The destruction of all Unbelievers or infidels (those that do not believe in Allah)”.  So what we end up with, is a group of Muslim Radicals, believing they are doing  JIHAD by removing anything or anyone that does not believe in Allah or the Islam religion.  Their sole purpose of life is to eradicate all nations that do not follow the mandates of Allah as lain forth by Mohammed.   Over the last 15 years we have seen an escalation of their JIHAD.  So, in Paris, over 120 people were either shot or blown up in the name of Allah.  The week before, they bombed an airplane and killed over 200 people.  They capture people, not of their faith and behead them.  I can’t find love in this method of living.

Then Saturday, I had the privilege of attending the funeral of my Aunt ZoAnn.  I grew up in her house.  I loved and respected this lady.  Her life was not one of comfort or ease and yet she showed forth a lot of love to those that she was around.  There were a lot of people there that knew and loved her.  I also was able to interact with my cousins and old acquaintances and how I enjoy that.  To celebrate the loving life of a great lady made for an enjoyable day.

These two experiences both involved death, but oh how different they were.  One involves hate and anger, the other love and celebration of a life well lived.  In the above book, Morrie stated that for us to live a good life we need to love one another and forgive others.  He talked about having a disagreement with a good friend and he let pride fill his heart and refused forgiveness.  He said it was a simple misunderstanding and that his friend had tried to ask for forgiveness, but he let his pride stand in the way of happiness.  His friend died and he was left with the guilt of his pride.

This life, with all the ups and downs, can bring us joy, happiness and peace, if we allow love to permeate our hearts.  Let’s do our own JIHAD as it should be done, cleansing our souls of all evil towards others and love more deeply.