Us and Them

As a young child, I knew that bad things happened. I had to get older and more experienced before I realized that bad things happen a lot. All of the time. To all people. I had experienced plenty of good things. I began to wonder. Why are bad things happening?It didn't take me long to come up with an answer. I decided that the bad things happen because of "them". There was a pool of decent people known as "us" who wanted the bad things to stop. We really did. But all it took was one or two of "them" to mess everything up for "us". Those of "us" who knew the truth about why bad things were happening did not believe ourselves to be perfect or even to be possessed of all the answers. Thinking things like that was believed to be characteristic of "them", not "us". We were humble and realistic. We did know pride and depravity. We saw it every time we took a close look at them. In fact the more we studied them, the more appalling the situation became.As years passed, I found it increasingly difficult to find those of "us" who did not show a resemblance to"them", at least once in a while. And yes, that includes me.