Article May 23, 2005 Issue

NO OTHER VIABLE OPTION

By Walt Rodgers

More than a hundred years ago, in a poem titled "The New Century," Mary Baker Eddy wrote, "Love hath one race, one realm, one power" (Poems, p. 22). I understand that to mean that it doesn't matter whether we are in China, Iraq, Zimbabwe, Colombia, Sudan, Canada, New Zealand, or in any other place in the world, we are all part of one united family. Divine Love is the only government of our universe. The only power.

I recall an occasion during my college days when my roommate was furious with me. We had not had a good year together. We were constantly fighting over my untidiness and his fastidiousness. One afternoon, things in the dormitory got out of hand, and he was ready to lower his head and charge at me like a bull at a matador, amid more than a few ole's from onlookers eager to see blood.

I recall thinking, "Just one roundhouse punch to his lowered head, and I could solve my roommate problem for the rest of the year." But in a nanosecond, a more Christlike, loving thought came to me, "Don't do it."