I just listened to an interview with Judge Esther Salas, describing how she’s moved forward from the horrific murder of her only son in 2026. She was targeted by a hater and her son was killed, her husband badly wounded. He lived. Forgiveness, after weeks of unimaginable suffering, proved healing—of course, to a point, and her son, in spirit, is still very much with her. I honor this woman’s courage and generosity to her soul. And—(I began to write “but,” inaccurately)—what she offered in the last five minutes of the discussion with Nicole Wallace stands as an antidote to our present trials. Her being a judge grants her the gravitas and solemnity to render rulings, opinions, suggestions, and wisdom above my education and skill. When I heard it, I was struck by the proverbial thunderbolt, “Of course!”
Paraphrased, Judge Salas entreats us to become transformers over mere “transmitters,” and to work hard to recast our pain, our acute nervous tension, our rage and sense of fury and anger. The “how” is for each of us to discover and practice. For, by transmitting to someone else (even to our dog or cat, what we’ve just seen on the news, heard on the radio, read in papers or online, we inadvertently pass on an energy or virus of sorts that further infects the next person, being, place, and so on.
Being informed citizens in a democracy is essential, but it is more important to use knowledge less carelessly than by a constant bombardment of horrific news and information. How to protect our peace, in order to effect the change we wish to see in our world, country, state, town, and neighborhood? “Think globally, act locally,” I remember from my youth.
What’s happened in our country and the world—much of which is a direct consequence thereof—is I believe, reparable and redeemable. I trust and have faith that we can overcome, you see, and this will require our innate capacity to be transformers. How many times in the past have we proven the rule against the odds? A partial list:
- The Revolutionary War itself. . .
- The Civil War
- The 1918 Influenza Pandemic
- World War II
- The Incarceration of Japanese Americans
- The Great Depression
- Jonas Salk’s Polio Vaccine
- McCarthyism
- The Assassination of JFK
- The Civil Rights Movement
- The Cold War—and the terror of nuclear bombs pointed at the U.S. and the Soviet Union, each threatening total mutual destruction
- Watergate
- 9-11, and a president who stood by and defended the Muslim population in the United States, demanding the nation’s tolerance.
Countless more examples populate history.
Judge Salas ends her interview by posing the question: “Do you want to be someone that transmits your pain, that transmits negativity, or do you want to transform it?”
Someone who transmits their pain is inwardly furious and will make someone mad just in the hearing of it, and the cycle will continue with no relief. She adds, “A transformer takes it, processes it and asks, how can I make this better? How can I take this feeling that I have and make sure I don’t pass it on?” Crisis and opportunity are wisely paired in Chinese thought. We stand at that opportunity.
