Feedback: BL and Adam Gopnick in the Garden of Good and Evil
Friday, October 21, 2005 - 02:39 PM
Subject: Related to the Question of Good and Evil
I believe we all come from the same "stuff" - and the vagaries of birth, family, country, gender, race, you name it, pulls or pushes us in various directions. To categorize human behavior as GOOD and EVIL separates us from one another in our hearts, and this is destructive to my mind. This does not mean that we condone all behavior - on the contrary, we are constantly needing to make choices, evaluating, acting or not acting - all across the scale of human experience, from the huge cataclysm of 9/11 down to something as seemingly simple as cutting off a person as we race to the closing subway door. Keeping love in our hearts is the most important and perhaps most difficult of all human endeavors, and without it, what are we left with?
Thank you.
-EC
Subject: Harry Potter on the issue
I was reading Harry Potter 4 to my 7and 9 year old last night and I was struck by something that Dumbledore the headmaster said to the students about evil:
"The Ministry of magic does not want me to tell you this. It is possible that some of your parents will be horrified that I have done so...It is my belief that the truth is generally preferable to lies and that any attempt to pretend that Cedric dies as a result of an accident, or some sort of blunder, is and insult to his memory...Remember, that if the time should come when you have to make a choice between what is right and what is easy..."
It occurred to me that this is the appeal of the Harry Potter books and that Dumbledore was talking about me.
-JC
Subject: 9-11 evil and kids
My two little kids are now 8 and 9. At the time of the attacks, they saw it on TV, of course, and I told them that evil people attacked us, the United States, and used airplanes as missiles to destroy buildings, kill people and hurt our country. They wanted to know why they would do such a thing. I told them they had a desire to harm us and I told them they senselessly pursued their desires.
I reminded them that when I get mad or when I want them to do something, I talk to them, but if I raise my voice, they will tell me they don't like it. I then either stop or demand that they obey me so that I will then restore my calm voice. But these evil people, I continued, did not want to talk, did not want to work out their disagreements with us and instead did these terrible things.
Thus, I gave them my take on evil deeds and evildoers.
-HE
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