it isn’t courage

“You don’t have the courage to have an affair!” left me open-mouthed and staring

It isn’t courage that is required to betray

“Let Putin do whatever the hell he wants!” leaves the world gasping and shaking their heads

It isn’t revenge that gifts peace

uh - oh

 befuddled after trauma

to an extent I am finding

only these months later

as i try to balance the books

tarnished rules

rules are sometimes stupid, like the old one where, if two

drivers came to a four-way stop at the same time,

each must wait until the other had gone

but rules are attempts to prevent chaos, to lessen anarchy

so we can live at peace

thus, we are upset and discouraged by trending attitudes of

“I can do whatever I want”

a recent clothes shopping trip where several women before me

left the clothes they didn’t want in heaps around the dressing room

or vacationers who littered and damaged their rented spot

or anger in traffic escalating into gun violence

or, at our local school, a pair of youngsters planning to beat up

a fellow student, but when a teacher intervened, beat and hurt her, too

perhaps we need to simplify and turn again

to the Golden Rule