Sunday thoughts

I am thinking about karma and history this morning. I've been reading The Norman Conquest by Marc Morris. I'm only a hundred pages in but I've already learned more about the Viking influence and rule in England than I knew before. The Normans too were of Viking descent and even before the conquest there were close ties between the English and Norman leaders.

This book obviously dwells on the changing fortunes of William (the Conqueror) and other leaders, often through the many battles it reports. Typically, there is not much told about the suffering of those who do the fighting, and as a reader I appreciate that ignoring. But in one scene, which took place outside a fortress occupied by his enemy's troops, the author reports that young William was mocked and insulted by the inhabitants.

"Suffice to say," writes Morris, "the duke was unamused. In short order the fort was attacked and its defenders captured. Then [quoting a source] 'under the eyes of all the inhabitants of Alençon, William ordered his mockers maimed. Thirty-two men . . . had their hands and feet cut off.'"

Now you can imagine that having both your hands and feet cut off in the 11th century leaves you with nothing to hope for but slow, painful death. A caregiver, if one could be found, might try to keep you alive but it seems a pointless proposition. How could a man live in that age without the ability to work, walk, or easily feed himself?

For years history was one of my favorite subjects and I can say with great confidence that such violence is not unusual. It appears throughout the 5,000 years of our shared history (and probably much longer), from tales of war, retribution and greed to the suffering of innocents produced by the Inquisition. Such deliberate maiming may be limited in our technology-driven wars but the suffering that results is the same suffering. 

The author mentions this episode because it provides a hint of William's character, and is thus worth knowing. But my reaction was to leap in imagination to the magnitude of the violence people have been imposing on each other forever. And to ask why? And to wonder if we, all humanity, continue to pay a price for such evil.

Karma is often invoked in our culture—usually in a nonserious way—as effect from a cause. But millions of Hindus and Buddhists take it seriously (and so did some early Christians), believing that our past lives play a role in our present one.

I have no firm opinion on karma, but as usual with me I am open to it. The universe is too strange a place, and too unknown, to eliminate anything, let alone a deeply engrained belief that's been held for millennia by millions.

But even if karma is not real, surely the evil humanity participates in has a lingering effect. It doesn't just disappear when the survivors march home. It is shared through familial memories across generations. America's Blacks, for instance still remember and suffer from the slavery of their ancestors. The Holocaust remains a vivid memory for those who lived through it, and for their children and grandchildren. The Vietnam war still echos. Memories and family tales are more than stories. They reflect our shared history and leave a mark on us all.

Sadly, the seed of violence lies in the hearts of each of us. We see it every day now. People angrily rebel against mask wearing, even spitting in other's faces. Violence breaks out on airplanes. A woman at a school board meeting declares her children will not wear masks and threatens guns to prove her point. Protesters are beaten. Health centers providing abortions are bombed. So are the offices of partisan organizations. The followers of our former president were happy to stab, beat, and even kill those defending the Capitol on January 6.

There are lots of reasons for this. Violence is fed by irresponsible leaders and media, among other things. And even today war still threatens. Why is that? Why is war so attractive? Are we all subconsciously seeking to repay those who tortured our forebears? Are we convinced that only death or maiming will grant success? Will Putin invade Ukraine to protect his own selfish interests? Possibly. Selfishness is war's lifeblood, the thirst to gain or hold power, territory, and money, and that has not changed in forever.

I have no answers of course. This is just me meandering through my thoughts. And despite the above I know that just as we are capable of cruelty and violence we are equally capable of extraordinary kindness and generosity. If we carry the seed of violence within us we are also capable of putting it aside to help the stranger, to rescue a struggling animal, to support causes that reflect the best in all of us. This is, somehow, what we must do, again and again. I don't see any other way to save ourselves, or the planet that supports us.