Bad Seeds, Bitter Fruit

Strong economy...runaway stock market...high employment. Does it get any better than this? But bitter fruit is spoiling the savor of this sweet success: children are being gunned down by other children.

One writer recently noted that these school shootings are cruel reminders that society hasn't yet figured out the puzzle of why young people would seek expression in such tragic, unfathomable atrocities. Are we thus without hope, destined to live in fearful expectation of the next outbreak until someone figures out "the puzzle"? Perhaps not.

Madame Chiang Kai-shek, wife of the Nationalist Chinese leader, once observed, "If the past has taught us anything it is that every cause brings its effect, every action has a consequence. This thought, in my opinion, is the moral foundation of the universe." The Chinese, she said, have a saying: "If a man plants melons he will reap melons; if he sows beans, he will reap beans."

In simplistic elegance, this is the law of the harvest. Stated a bit differently, if a man is reaping beans, then beans must have been sown. Thus, if we're observing unconstrained action without conscience, wanton cruelty that puts no value on life, anger that's devoid of remorse, could the implications be any clearer? Somewhere along the way the seeds of such behavior were surely sown and are bearing fruit.

We must deal with the bad seeds if we don't want to cope with their bitter aftereffects. Moral problems demand moral solutions. A bean problem isn't solved by pulling up melons.

Where do we begin? John Adams, our second president, said, "The foundations of national morality must be laid in private families. In vain are schools, academies, and universities instituted if loose principles and licentious habits are impressed upon children in their earliest years." There are many ways that the bad seeds of "loose principles and licentious habits" are being sown. Think about these:

-- By glamorizing violence and no-holds-barred gratification through television, movies, video games, books, and music.

-- By bestowing fame and fortune on entertainers and sports stars with alley-cat morals and despicable behavior.

-- By openly flaunting immodesty and immorality in consumer magazines that routinely adorn the racks of even "family friendly" stores and offices.

John Adams knew where the foundations of national morality would begin to crumble. "The vices and examples of parents cannot be concealed from the children." Are we adults a bit loose in principle or licentious in habit or slack in self-discipline? If we don't like the fruit we're seeing in our children, we had better check out the seed...the seed of our examples.

"In the end," Madame Chiang noted, "we are the sum total of our actions ... Thus also, day by day, we write our own destiny; for inexorably we become what we do."The law of the harvest holds another lesson: we eventually reap more than we sow.

All the more reason not to even trifle with bad seed. We'll see it again ... in abundance.

Copyright 1998 James McAlister

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