Soldier Carrying Heat in Heat

Today we had prayer vigils for two young men who were killed by someone “carrying heat”, a gun. We have another prayer vigil one tomorrow. We hear on the radio about someone in Toulouse France who is going around carrying heat and killing Semitic peoples, Arabs and Jews. On the military internet site, www.military.com you can watch many videos depersonalizing killing of individuals in war by missile, bombs or drones.

Today being the hottest day recorded in March, 82 degrees meant I was carrying heat on my body while working in the gardens. When we cook we turn the heat on as we do in winter days. Say a person is ‘hot’ means the person is attractive.
The image of heat and fire is common place. Heat has many uses but I cannot think of any that are neutral. Heat can be good or bad but is never in between like warm would be. Sadly the images of heat we often see these days are not about the weather or something attractive. It is usually tragic like a house fire or someone in war being “smoked” by heat of a bomb.

In ancient Egypt the sun, a source of heat, was worshiped and the Pharaoh was thought to be son of the Sun. There were weapons and war but the killing was personal. There was no “buster bombs’, napalm, heat seeking missiles or cluster bombs designed to kill humans not things.

Now it is legal to “carry heat” and in many states, concealed or not. Weapons of war become more and more impersonal and destructive. The deaths by homicide and by wars keep going up the more we are carrying heat.

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