So Many Parallels

 

         Don’t try to catch a butterfly with a hammer, for gentleness brings results. - idiom

This year we have been reading the Doctrine and Covenants.  I remember learning much from it four years ago.  And this year I am learning more and have added a few more videos to my study. 

Recently I shared this poem on my facebook page –

 originally shared by Ben Wilcox in his Teaching With Power video.  He finished this week’s study with a thought about a hammer.  A hammer can be used to build but that same hammer may also tear down that which was built. 

That is the same thing with our thoughts, words, actions and so forth.  Take the topic of “freedom of speech” for example.  One man was recently assassinated while using his freedom of speech.  Another was suspended from his prime time position on television because of interpretation of that speech.  Both men offended others by what they said – but somehow the first (who I had never even heard of until he was murdered) had been justified – it was political.  The other was “in the wrong” according to the nation’s biggest baby ever.  His hammer has slammed against others well before 2016 – I just didn’t notice it until the end of 2015.  

My brother posted the following Noam Chomsky quote on his wall: “ If you don’t believe in freedom of speech for people you disagree with, you don’t believe in freedom of speech at all.”

In 1833 printing presses were destroyed.  Mobsters chased Mormons out of Jackson county.  There was contention and guidelines of how NOT to react but to ACT with kindness.  The law still applies.

May we all act with kindness and still defend our freedom of speech without fear.