Score: Darkness 2, Light 1,000,000

I am a Bostonian.

We have had a tough week here.  We suffered a violent act of darkness as two young men attacked us, killing 3, critically injuring and maiming scores of others, and attempting to shake our individual and communal senses of security and trust.

They failed.  Resoundingly.

And so, even in the midst of this crisis, we have had a great week here.  Everything that is the best in us, in humanity, is on full display:  love, compassion, fearlessness in the face of danger, generosity, strength, selflessness, kindness, commitment to community, protection of others, clarity, cooperation, respect, and resolve.

I do not sense fear here. Quite notably, the response has not been fear, but unwavering common purpose to uphold these best values, to do what is right, to express the goodness that is who we are in truth, to protect what is finest in life and being human.  The response has been quiet and certain solidarity.

I have been deeply moved and filled with a sense of real joy–nearing ebullience–as I have witnessed the immediate egoless response, by thousands of individuals, stepping forward in all-embracing open heartedness to aid and assist, in an endless number of ways.  When the first bomb exploded just before 3 o’clock on April 15th, this entire community responded instantly and seamlessly with a kind of gentle collaborative might.  It is as if one soul is at work here.  All  combined in one consciousness, and it spread across the region, 1 million strong.  This was, and is, palpable, steady, with a matter-of-fact calmness and sureness about it. No drama.  No hysteria.

Evil arrived, and a formidable army responded.  Not with anger or violence, but with light.  With love.

There were no instructions to do this; there was no time to think about it. It was the innate goodness of each of us that immediately burst forth, confirming and reaffirming, lest we lose sight of it, who and what we are in our most authentic selves.  We are the incarnate expressions of the ineffable source, however you think of it: Love, Spirit, God, Light.

As Martin Luther King wrote while imprisoned in Birmingham:

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

This past Monday multitudes of light showed up.

We are the ones we have been waiting for.  Here we are.   We are on the front line today, in this city upon a hill.  But we are legion with you, and you are with us.  Together our possibilities are great.

This has been a very good week indeed.