Shantih Journal 3.1 | Page 53

Iraq james b. nicola Remember the pedestrian at night that stopped to help a stranger on the square look for a quarter under the streetlight who said at last, “This is not where I lost it, but the light is better here!”? The cost to the helpful pedestrian was the night wasted, and being made a fool. What light should do in desperate times, though, is to bare, not hide, truths. Like the source of our despair: that the loudest shouts were those of ignorance inflaming fears of enemies unseen persuading us there was a quarter there. No shiny thing’s been lost, just common sense and lives, the current price of gasoline. 53