No Reasons, Just Responses

In response to Prompt #27 They Say, I Say.

As I write this post, I am listening to Tom Petty's Full Moon Fever, and I feel I'm in a free fall. This has been a heck of a month, and there seems to be no end in sight.

I had longed to write something light for this prompt, but I guess it wasn't to be.

I am totally over the saying "Everything happens for a reason."  Maybe it is because I have 12-year-old students who toss it off as if they know what it really means.  Maybe it is my intense Buddhist studies.  I am not sure; but a perfect storm has happened and I am rebelling against this (what I consider) trite saying.

There is no reason for the stuff that is going on.  There may be a bit of cause and effect, but I dare anyone to come up with a reason for the cruel heart of the president or the fact that someone opened fire at a concert -- a place I consider sacred ground.  I dare anyone to say there is a reason that hurricane victims should get deported or that random natural disasters strike some people and not others.  I deplore those who blame it on gays or abortion. 

There is no REASON.

All that we have is RESPONSE.

I decided to try something different to get my point across, and so I wrote a sonnet. I cannot say I've ever written one before.  If I did, I don't recall.

This sonnet has 10 syllables per line and the Shakespearean rhyme scheme, but I am not going to claim it has iambic pentameter.

I've struggled to get the message right.  I've spent two days revising.  Probably could spend a lot more.  But this is so on my mind, here it is, warts and all.

"Everything happens for a reason" they
say. Well, I call bullshit on that. How do
we ever find a real reason for, say,
constant cruelty to others the crew
in the White House is known for? What reason
can there be for war, cancer, and abuse?
Considering those, it seems uneven.
To look for reasons provides an excuse.
Ever-changing phenomena is just
that. Compassionate love can make it right.
Moment by moment, we tune in and trust
Mindful our responses carry some might.
Don't reduce events to five little words.
Instead, look to the purpose they can serve.