Every human who lives

and feels and is a being

deserves to be treated

with unconditional dignity,

no matter what that person

has done or how terrible

they are deemed to be.

 

And dignity is the core

of a radical compassion

that views all beings

as having rights

that transcend everything

that we might think

or believe about

the evil potential

and dark pit

of depravity

into which they

seem to have fallen.

 

Radical compassion

does not depend upon

how one feels, for this

would make compassion

merely self-indulgent sympathy,

but on the notion

that every being is a

significant part of the whole,

and a unique creature

of infinite worth.

 

Even the enemy

deserves the

radical compassionate

response of equity of care

that comes from

a conviction that

all beings are equal,

of the same worth,

deserving of generosity

and needing the healing

power of love’s gentle balm.

 

11/11/2016