November Catch Up #4

Day 323: Learning to Keep Your Envy in Check

We are commanded in the 10 Commandments not to covet, not to envy what doesn't belong to us; not to steal. It doesn't get more relevant than that in a world where there's always something new we might want more than what we already have. And I have definitely been in positions of want and have definitely coveted other things that don't belong to me (Pinterest and Etsy, for example, are easy ways to covet). I think now it's just a matter of changing my mindset from "I want that" to "wow, that's nice, maybe one day" and eventually to "wow, that's awesome!" and leaving it at that.

Day 324: Don't Get Used to Other People's Suffering

Beware, what you are about to read his negative. Imagine it was written by Debbie Downer, and not by me.

Horrible things happen in this world every day. Every hour. Every second. Why, just last week, there were 2 sexual assaults on or near my campus, multiple terrorist attacks in Jerusalem, and the shocking and horrible terrorist attacks that struck Paris.

It is hard not to be in shock or to resist feeling the increidlbe amounts of sadness that come in the wake of bad news.

Last week, an 18 year old whom I had many mutual friends with, was killed in a terrorist attack in Israel. Up until the moment I read the news, I had somehow gotten used to seeing headlines about the stabbings, shootings, and other attacks that have plagued Israel since its modern founding. Up until that moment, I had gotten used to it. How awful is that? Bad things happening in Israel no longer surprised me, they were the status quo and that hurt.

But when I read of the death of Ezra Schwartz, I could not contain myself and burst into tears in the middle of the lecture hall I was about to have class in. Sometimes, I think we need an extra push to remember that pain and suffering are not things we should be getting used to. They are things we should feel things about. We should react. We must react. Suffering should never be commonplace.