The Useless Tree

Bad News

     Yet more sad stories in the news these days: havoc in Iraq; war in the Middle East; tsunami in Indonesia; fires in California.  Any silver lining in all of these dark clouds?  The Tao Te Ching, in its inimitable way, tries to see the good in the bad:

All beneath heaven knows beauty is beauty
only because there’s ugliness,
and knows good is good
only because there’s evil.

Being and nonbeing give birth to one another,
difficult and easy complete one another,
long and short measure one another,
high and low fill one another,
music and noise harmonize one another,
before and after follow one another….
                (Passage 2)

     Somewhere out there is some good news.

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Sam Crane
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One response to “Bad News”

  1. windlotus Avatar
    windlotus

    Only a small bit perhaps, but they do add up 🙂
    Thief compensates victim for stolen bike
    BERLIN (Reuters) – Overcome with remorse at having stolen a bicycle, a thief in Germany wrote the victim a letter and fully recompensed him for the loss, police said Monday.
    After the theft in the Bavarian village of Bidingen was reported, police in nearby Marktoberdorf made an appeal in a local paper for any witnesses to the crime to come forward.
    Soon afterwards, the victim received an anonymous letter from the thief containing 400 euros ($501.50) in cash — the exact value of the bicycle according to the police notice.
    “The thief also told the man he was sorry he couldn’t remember where he’d left the bike,” said police spokesman Gerhard Kreis. “He may just have been a thoroughly honest person who saw the error of his ways. You still get them you know.”

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