I am going to take a few minutes with this, before going out to pull more weeds in my front yard.  Of course, I will also post about the American bison and two of Yellowstone’s southern lakes, later today.

A man I have never met, but have come to know vicariously, through the eyes of a mutual friend, is struggling with a medical condition that I’ll not mention here.  He has not, to the best of my knowledge, received adequate resolution to this condition.  He has opted to self-medicate, and to excess.

Some others I know have responded to his actions with ill-disguised scorn.  This is the way, it seems, of modern society, at least here in the West.  In so doing, they disregard the words of  Jesus the Christ, “He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” John, 8:7. They may not have read similar words from the Pen of Baha’u’llah, “If ye meet the abased or the down-trodden, turn not away disdainfully from them, for the King of Glory ever watcheth over them and surroundeth them with such tenderness as none can fathom except them that have suffered their wishes and desires to be merged in the Will of your Lord, the Gracious, the All-Wise. ” Gleanings From The Writings of Baha’u’llah, 315:23.

It’s something we all do, from time to time, for any number of reasons.  Perhaps, as in my own case in times past, it’s a matter of expediency. It might also be that the onlooker sees something in him/herself that is reflected in the other person’s real or perceived transgressions.  The bottom line, though, is this:  The suffering person is still in the world; is still in the lives of those he loves and of those who love him; still has the capacity to heal, to grow, to change.  No judgment from another person will change that reality.

High horses don’t take well to the high ground.  They stumble on the scree and pebbles, which the careful goats and sheep navigate so well.  History shows that the Caiaphases, De Torquemadas, McCarthys and Starrs of the world tend to fall precipitously, when they reach the inevitable climax of their power.  God, the Unknowable, is the only Judge Whose Hand is sure, steady and equitable.

This is a man who, though I have never met him and may never meet him, is worth my love and support- however indirect and oblique that love and support have to be.  You and I gain nothing by his failure, and may well benefit in many ways by his recovery.  So, I remain dismounted from my high horse and lead it gently through the scree and pebbles.