Yes, there are Monsters by Night and by Day

    I woke this morning, late in February. It was dark; it was foggy and somewhat ominous outside. Looking out my upstairs bathroom window, I peered through the slats of the blinds and noted the weather, the ambience. It was a little warmer than it had been the last few weeks, with a good deal of humidity. My window looks down on a field, trees, an assortment of lights, which through the mist and the doomy looks of the pre-dawn appear a bit creepy. I could conjure werewolves that would stalk us, their human prey. How terrifying would it be to be surrounded by the threat of man-eating monsters? We are thankful and aware that these fictitious monsters like werewolves, vampires, and all the mythic beasts from our collective histories are just that: fiction.

    However, we recognize that in life there are real monsters. They come in human form. Okay, there are scary wolves and crocodiles, and even hippopotamuses, snakes and sharks that are monsters unto themselves, which can harm and terrify us. But the worst of us are us people. Some men (and a few women and children) may threaten, harm, or kill just one. That is monstrous enough. Most of us will never harm or certainly not take another human being's life. Some people are lethal to a degree that is hard to imagine. Dictators, despots, regime leaders of our present, mostly past but some in the present...

    Vlad Putin qualifies. Trump and Musk in Africa, I would say. Possibly Netanyahu? Troubling times. We do not have a true modern day Pol Pot, or Idi Amin, or Joseph Stalin, or Adolph you know who. Just in my parents' lifetimes, we have had some really bad ones. One or two responsible or culpable for millions and millions dying, most of them cruelly and unfairly. Not accidentally. On purpose. Oh, yes, Mao Zae Dong. How many did he kill? Some would argue Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon killed too many in Vietnam. Ugliness, all around, these wars and conflicts.

    Poor and destitute dependent on U.S. aid and medicine in Africa? Yes, this last year. I am not sure how many have and still will die as result.

    We do what we can.

    Sort of. Kind of.

    How do we fight and battle the real monsters?

    The sun came up and it was sunny.

    Bad men are still afoot. Many places.