Life IS experience!

    I believe we all come to this earth with a purpose, a mission, if you will. Of course, to understand where I'm coming from, you have to believe in an existence before and after this earthly life. Bringing that into the conversation one might see everything as choices we make. Before we came, what if we chose to live through certain difficulties to learn particular attributes. We may have chosen to come to a specific family that would provide these difficulties. Or we might have chosen to come to a particular era so that we would have to live through famine, war or other atrocities. Maybe we came to the perfect family where everything went "according to plan" so that we could learn more subtle things like sympathy for others, or even, having much we could learn to give much. There are endless possible ideas here of course.

    With all of this, we still have the ability to choose what we learn. The book by Viktor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning contains his observances of watching others deal with the ravages of a concentration camp. Of course, this is all while he is living in this hell himself. He noticed that the people who shared what they had, fared better emotionally. Not everyone can stay chipper through this kind of difficulty but even when faced with one small crust of bread every few days, some would share it with others who needed it more. Of course, they all "needed" it so I'm not sure that was the "right" way to phrase it but these people did better overall. 

    By the end of the containment, when they were rescued by friendly soldiers, these people were able to make a new life. Most of the others were not. Many killed themselves because they couldn't live with the nightmares of what, to them, was nothing but intolerable experiences. Positive actions created possibilities and in turn gave some hope but they had to create that hope for themselves in a situation that was impossible to most views.
    If we look at innocents who are acted upon then we have to ask, "What about their choices?" If we totally ignore the idea of them making choices before this earthly life, we could wonder, what if they had the opportunity for forgiveness at the highest level. Putting it in my opinion, I do believe that there is nothing more wrong than hurting an innocent, and by innocent I mean children. I really don't feel I have all the answers, nor do I believe I have all the answers but I do believe that there is a higher plan than we can understand at this time. 

    I would like to know the answers someday. I keep searching for them and maybe I will discover some of them. Until then I choose to believe that there is hope for each one of us no matter what we choose to think, believe or do. By hope I mean a positive outcome....whatever that means for us as individuals.