Dear Friends,
It seems to me, by the one merciful act of an evil man, the world has been given untold blessings. An act that was done to honor a commitment to a slave, someone without power, a voice or even agency. By doing so, and reuniting the family of a little girl, he had raped and was his slave, the world has got to know a great mind. The story is compelling and touching as well as horrifying and atrocious, but in the end… it is a story of redemption, kindness and enlightenment. If a slaver, a child rapist, and probably a man high in the Triad, (to have done what he did) can keep a commitment to a slave he had raped… why do we find it so difficult in our day to day lives? Mercy is a way we can lead by example. If we bring some quality of mercy into the world around us, that may be all the world needs.
That one act has released wisdom upon the world that is like acid to the forces that rule today. The small acts you and I engage in, in our daily lives, may not be as effective, but they help nonetheless. You never know though. Holding the door, a smile and nod to someone, may cause them to not detonate themselves as a suicide bomb, refrain from beating their wife or decide to carry it forward and keep a promise to a slave. The world is made better or worse by little acts of kindness or rudeness. If we judge that only great acts can change the world, but never practice small acts, when the time comes for the great act, we are too out of practice to do it. One good act of an ostensibly evil man, has improved the lot of Mankind. Perhaps yours and mine could as well?
You can never tell how far an act of mercy can go. That crime boss might have thought Yeonmi and her family would be picked up by the CCP authorities and sent back to North Korea, to be killed, or not. One thing he couldn’t have assumed is, that she would escape to the West and become a brilliant advocate for human rights, or that he would play such a part in that story. The missionaries, who saved her from the CCP and got her into South Korea, didn’t do it to save the world, they did it to save a little girl. Their hard philosophy not only condemned those things she had to do to survive, but put them in the place, risking their lives, to save people who had been forgotten. No one in the story is a saint, but they are all human. Like the butterfly effect, both good and evil resonate in the world, to make huge changes.
Mercy is a self interested act. Every act of mercy elevates us, just as every act of rudeness lowers us. Ask anyone, even yourself, when you imagine someone who is truly enlightened, do you imagine someone rude… or someone kind? If kind, then by acting with mercy, we emulate our vision of the enlightened person. Clearly it is a self interested act to become more wise. To be kind one must practice at empathy. Empathy is understanding what others are feeling. Only that way can we be merciful. Moreover, those who have empathy are more in touch with the world around them, at least the emotional world, and since wisdom is understanding the world around you, empathy is a form of wisdom. Mercy then is a way to hone our empathy and therefore wisdom… becoming enlightened
If an evil man’s act of mercy, perhaps his only act of mercy, can lead to so much good, imagine how thousands, then millions of acts of kindness can effect the world. If every one of us did one more act of mercy a day, than we otherwise would have, that is over 6 billion acts, a day. Obviously, we are selfish, cruel and capricious animals. Some of us try to act human, sometimes. Despite our congenital nature being evil, the good in us learned, that inculcated good is why your children can walk safely to the store, and if they cannot, the lack of is why they cannot. It all starts with you and I. This is no more true than when we are in a bad mood. That is the time to intentionally act kindly. In doing so, we change our mood, that person’s day… and the lot of Mankind, in one fell swoop.
Sincerely,
John Pepin
