Today a sulfur-winged butterfly lighted on a purple aster flower

Dear God, Compassionate and Merciful-
Yesterday we gathered to commemorate the anniversary of the attacks of September 11th. Among our numbers were Christians and Muslims. We prayed to You, we who seek you with a sincere heart.

We prayed not only for ourselves, but for the people who suffer daily.
We prayed for the people of Haiti.
We prayed for those enslaved in China.
We prayed for those besieged in Syria.
We prayed for those in poverty, in bondage, in sickness.
We prayed because we understood that God is greater than border, banner or religion.
We prayed because we understood, that unless all are blessed, we still have praying to do.

And so on September 11th, we lifted our voices together. No news cameras, no youTube videos, just a gathering of people commemorating a solemn day, we of many religions and races, together in honest thanksgiving and supplication.

As I contemplated the cross one of the ministers wore on a necklace, I had another prayer:

God, if math is a universal language, please reveal yourself in math.
Make of that cross a plus sign, as Christ originally intended.
Make the divine math allow us to add the love of Christians AND Muslims AND Jews

AND all the rest…

This morning, I went for a walk in the autumn sunshine. The most amazing sulfur-yellow butterfly lit on a light-purple aster. The colours were so beautiful, so vivid, that I consciously thought, "Here's real news! Here's what we should be talking about in the world! This is the headline on CNN!"

When I got home, I checked my email. My editor had written to ask if I would do a write-up on the death of Ambassador Christopher Stevens. I followed up, but I still couldn't shake the earlier thought that the story of our blessings, of the blessings of the life of a good man, could be overshadowed by one unfortunate incident. Why had no one reported so extensively on his remarkable life until he was gone? After all, this man had dedicated his life to the Middle East. He had been an eyewitness and a participant in Libya's struggle for freedom. He had studied Arabic, bravely remained in-country during Libya's struggles against dictatorship. He had been a Peace Corps volunteer in Morocco in the 80's, taught English for two years in the High Atlas Mountains, where he developed a love for the Muslim world. As US Ambassador, he had hoped to create a special partnership which would help war-injured Libyans to come to the US for medical treatment.

All this life work destroyed because of a bad youTube video by a pseudo-religious nut and the misplaced anger of crowds of frustrated people.

Allow us to understand that the opposite, subtraction, is the work of Satan.
Here in this country, out there in the world, hatred subtracts.
Ugly men and their talk of hell
Trump the quiet masses who dream of brotherhood.
Hatred aimed at Muslims inspires hatred aimed at Christians inspires hatred aimed over and over.

God, may we who claim to be Your faithful ones add
with the same fervor as the subtractors
To conquer the true enemies of Your word:
The ignorance, the poverty of intellect, the errant mathematics of hatred.

But if the crowd were truly a crowd of the faithful, couldn't they leave the retribution to God alone? Did they have to cause the death of the innocent and righteous? If Jesus were to judge the Christians, what would he say about the hate-mongers? Why can't retribution be left in God's hands? Then none of the innocent would suffer.

* * *
Days have passed since the killing, and we discover that the protestors outside the embassy were not the killers. That some cynical group of extremists used the diversion of the protest to seize the moment. It would seem that the subtractors usurped the protests in order to commit murder. Once again, our newspapers are filled with the word "al-Qaeda", and headlines in the Muslim world talk about a "US-made hate film". The extremists on both sides bait the press, the press ravenously declares such things newsworthy, and the situation deteriorates.

God, yesterday a sulfur-winged butterfly lighted on a purple aster flower.
And today a good man was killed by the anger caused by an evil man.
Which event reflected Your will?

God, a year ago, Rais Bhuyan, Your servant,
asked for clemency for the Muslim-hating man who shot him.
The Christian Governor of Texas said "No", and had him executed.
Which man reflected Christ's will?
But which man made the newspapers?

No mob can enter heaven.
We enter one by one.
No torn flag can stop an idiot from ranting.
No fool's movie can teach us to hate.

That is our choice.

The truth is that I am through with bad news. As Yoko Ono (of all people) once said, all of humanity has three goals: To be happy, to be loved, to survive. All three goals are within our power to achieve, all three goals are within our power to help others to reach. By allowing our thoughts to fester one of these individuals who seek to subtract the humanity of others, we make the world more miserable.

God, today a sulfur-winged butterfly lighted on a purple aster flower AND
Someone did a good deed AND
Someone fell in love AND
Some child made her father proud.

This reporter will report these things
Because this is most of the world.
These are the headlines that matter.
These are the headlines that should make us flock to our
Temples AND Churches AND Mosques.
These are Your blessings.

I for one will continue to focus on the positive. Too many thousands of stories of people living exemplary lives in Bangladesh go unpublished. And may I write about the least of these good people before I give print space to the demons of the world, or the acts they inspire.

God, today an American died.
It took a day for his heart to stop.
God, for the last 52 years an American lived.
It took a lifetime for him to develop his brave love for Libya,
And to be a witness to its rebirth.

And for 52 years he was unknown.
And today, by his subtraction, he is famous.

So I refuse to fuel the fire, or surrender my faith in humanity just because a barely educated, dangerously inbred hick from the South hungry for press coverage, broadcast his ignorance for all the world to see. I refuse to spend my words and thoughts on the evil people who take advantage of ignorance and hatred. I refuse to capitulate my optimism because a handful of evil men attacked a symbol and killed the wrong person. These acts are not representative of us a human race. Most of us love, forgive, and strive. It's not very newsworthy, but it is certainly worthy of praise.

God if Math is a universal language,
Please reveal yourself in math.
Please let us understand that nowhere in the universe is it true (except on the news)
That Your infinite blessings, minus one, equals nothing.

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Frank Domenico Cipriani writes a weekly column in the Riverside Signal called "You Think What You Think And I'll Think What I Know." He is also the founder and CEO of The Gatherer Institute — a not-for-profit public charity dedicated to promoting respect for the environment and empowering individuals to become self-taught and self-sufficient. His most recent book, "Learning Little Hawk's Way of Storytelling", teaches the native art of oral tradition storytelling.