COLUMNS Peonies And Orange Skies

I rarely think of Canada, our benign neighbor to the north. We’re blessed with their exports of natural gas, lumber products, maple syrup, bacon, hockey and comedians. But recently none of us could escape thinking about Canada as we were unwilling recipients of smoke from Canadian forest fires.

Our daytime skies turned orange and we reached for our masks again. Activities were curtailed or cancelled and we got a bit of a flashback to covid days when our lives were disturbed by a threatening airborne attack.

Both events remind us how interconnected we are as we share the planet, our one common home. The “Vegas rule” doesn’t really apply. What happens in one place doesn’t stay there. Our actions affect more folks than we can ever imagine.

This is also true of word we

The Spirit Of Our Town

speak and attitudes we express. In the past, hurtful words polluted families and relationships. Can you think of a time when you were pained by what someone at home, at school or at work said? Many times people have the ability to forgive a hurt or injustice and they move on. But sometimes unloving words disturb people for a long time and sometimes this is passed on to new generations. Consider how prejudice infects our young people.

Today our own unkind words can reach hundreds, if not thousands, of people because of social media. I feel great sadness when I see some of my Facebook “friends” re-posting cruel and insulting things on their Facebook page. It’s as if they are spreading orange choking smoke further and further. I hold myself back from calling them out by publicly posting, “Which part of ‘Do unto others as you would have them do to you?’ are you following?” Or “Love your neighbor?” Or “Turn the other cheek.?” Or “Forgive, they do not know what they are doing?”

The flames of hate and hurt and being fanned by otherwise kind and faithful people. And once they get in the habit of