I Stand With You

A cathedral in the woods.

Elsewhere, a tired man walks down a city street.  The cold wind blows fiercely at him.  He puts his head down and walks on. Where will he go tonight?

A mother stands crying.  A parent should not outlive her child, she thinks to herself.  This is wrong.

A man, desperate, holds a gun.  Voices and music spill out when the door is opened.  Shaking, he waits.

A woman sits alone after her doctor has left the room.  This diagnosis could mean the end.  She will fight. She will fight with everything she has.

In a house, a man sits alone.  He knows he has driven all those he loves away.  That which remains is the only constant in his life.  In a moment, it will provide relief.  Temporarily.  Then it will begin again.  Until the day that it kills him.

I stand in this wooded cathedral and I think of all of you, and many more.  I do not care where you have been or what you have done.  It matters less what you face than the fact that you think you face it alone.  I can't promise I'll fix  it.  But we are all one.  If this is happening to you, it is happening to us all.  No, I can't tell you I can fix it and make it all go away.  But I can tell you that you matter, that I care, and that I stand with you.  No questions, no judgments.  I stand with you.

If we are not here to stand with each other, then what are we here for?