There has to be evil so that good can prove its purity above it.
Buddha

Last night around 1am in a house not far from mine, a 15 year old boy poured gasoline all over the house, lit it on fire and left. The fire dept arrived to find a father and 2 sons dead, a daughter and mother injured. The 2 dead boys were children of middle school age. 

The quote above came to mind as I heard this story unfold today. While it’s possible that the boy who lit his house on fire intending to kill his family may me mentally ill, it strikes me as an act of pure evil. The news reports said that the boy was troubled and that some who knew the family feared something bad would one day befall the family. 

There is plenty of evil in the world, and there is plenty of good. At the moment it’s hard to understand the good in this situation – perhaps that not all family members died? Perhaps that no firemen or other rescuers were injured?  I don’t know. 

Even though the holidays are upon us, it seems like there have been too many reports of evil as of late involving DWI’s, shootings, deadly car accidents and now this. I know there is much good in the world, but sometimes it seems like it’s on vacation. 

This event is unimaginable in it’s depravity and hopefully Buddha was right, and that this kind of evil is necessary, but seeing 3 innocent people die makes it a tough pill to swallow.