I came across a PBS program the other night that was recounting the cheerful tale of the Donner Party. I suppose there were a few new details in that particular retelling of how dozens of people lost their lives in a vicious winter while trying to make their way to California. The story has remained more or less fixed in our national consciousness because of the dark secret of survival that most in the wagon train resorted to during the two to four months they waited for rescue. According to the records of this particular narrative, not all of them waited for natural causes to provide their next ghastly meal; some of them murdered for food.

A similar degree of desperation took place back in the Sixties in the aftermath of a plane crash in the Andes mountains, though I’ve never heard that any of those survivors hastened the demise of their comrades in order that they might dine a bit sooner.

There’s a common saying that we don’t know what we’d do until we’re put into a particular situation. Perhaps we might also say that we don’t know what we would refuse to do, either. While I agree, rather completely, with the saying and would have to admit that in various situations in the past, I have surprised myself. Sometimes, the surprise was pleasantly reassuring and sometimes, devastatingly disappointing.

But in my most honest moments of self-examination, I would have to say that I have never yielded to any dark temptation that I had not previously imagined myself doing. The mental rehearsal of a thing does not always make it easy to do but it does make it more likely. Fantasy creates reality, whether for good or for not-so-good. Which is one more reason for us to guard our hearts closely and only entertain thoughts of doing what is pure and good and holy.

No matter how dire the circumstances and even when those circumstances exist only in our imagination.

H. Arnett
2/4/10