Harm No One

Harm no one. A secure life can be lived in service to these three words.

Using no more than needed does no harm to the needs of my neighbor.

Never wounding my neighbor by word or deed provides for our mutual safety.

But….

We choose to harm no one and still we are wounded. We choose to harm no one and still we are hungry. 

We who harm none are secure even with wounds and hunger because wounding and greed are not our path. Ours is a hard path, and unsafe, but it is secure. Martyrs feel this.

Protecting those who harm none is hard, sometimes impossible. One watches for danger, asks for help. Two watch for danger until they tire, and one watches while one sleeps. Danger approaches, slips by, has its way. More watchers are called. They organize; some lead, some follow. Leaders skirt the traps of power and know too late that danger grips them even as they lead. A hard choice is made to bless many; a few are harmed. A compromise breaches security for the trusting few. Wounded and hungry, unsafe and harmed by those they trusted…still they are secure...

...and why? To serve harm to no one is secure.

To harm no one and pledge our trust to a government is impossible, but necessary for now, for as long as we choose to live defenseless against danger, wounding and starvation endure. Only the corruption of powerful leadership can lay waste to the corrupt greed and terrorism of those who harm, and such things must be until all harm is done.

The hurt of a protective government harming enemies by proxy wounds us, too. We hurt, secure in this harm by proxy, but safer while still unsafe, and so we pledge the impossible trust with hope that governments, too, can and will evolve away from harm.

So it is, so it has been, so must it be.