Betrayal seems to be part of human nature, certainly at least part of the human experience. After Jesus marched in triumph from Galilee to Jerusalem, welcomed as the Son of God, everything went sour. Within days He was humiliated, beaten and crucified. What else could he do but accept it as God's will, forgive, and move on to Paradise?
When Caesar was attacked by his fellow senators on the floor of the Roman Senate, he began by fighting back, but when he saw that his dear Brutus was among the would-be assassins, he lifted his toga to cover his eyes, and relinquished himself to his fate. Shakespeare makes Caesar's final sorrowful words "Et tu Brute?" Suetonius said Caesar's final heartbroken words were "You too, my child?" What else could Caesar do but accept betrayal as his fate, cover his face, and succumb to death?
Peaceful Tibetan monks have begun marching from Dharmasala India to Lhasa in Tibet, a 5 to 6 month march that will culminate in their arrival at the time of the Olympics in Beijing in August. Meanwhile, at their destination in Lhasa, the killing has already begun. Chinese authorities proudly announce that they have contained the situation with tanks and guns and forced incarcerations of Tibetans. In recent years those same authorities built a railroad to Tibet and sent in Chinese residents to populate Tibet and marginalize Tibetans as violently as America marginalized the American Indians. The Potala Palace and the sacred Jokhang Temple, to which Tibetan pilgrims used to come for hundreds of miles by prostrating themselves body length by body length the whole way, are now surrounded by brothels and honky tonks catering to tourists. What else can the Tibetans do but foresee their possible doom, and resist it as long as possible, even unto death?
An innocent child or a happy and beloved adult gets a deadly cancer, and each must relinquish life to cancer's relentless appetite. What else can they do but hope for comfort and for their loved ones not to suffer as they have?
Elliot Spitzer, former Attorney General and Governor of New York, boy wonder, moral monitor, prosecutor extraordinaire, is revealed as a fraud, as a patron of common but well-marketed prostitutes. What else can he or we do but accept his slimy inner realities as part of the human condition? This stuff is nothing new. People go crazy for sex, money, power or revenge. Friends become enemies. They murder one another, they go to war, indigenous people are tossed aside for others' gain. A tsunami wipes away a few hundred thousand people. It's just the way it sometimes is. Life goes on. What else can we do but pray for forgiveness, ask for strength to endure or to make a change, and hope to experience laughter and loving-kindness? What else is there but to carry on the best we can until the moment we die, cherishing and giving thanks for the blessings we have?
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