When hardships befall us, we cry out to heaven, “Why me?” When good fortune attends us, it is the grateful heart that has the courage to ask, “Why me?” The Buddhist practice of mindfulness and the daily examen of Ignatian spirituality point to the same end: when we pay attention, it is possible to halt evil in its tracks. Paying attention also helps us to see how easy it is to become inured to the proliferation of evil. Evil does not sweep in like a tsunami; it bleeds into the fabric of life, washing out the joy and staining the beauty.
