Living as Kohaku

It is easy to become bitter, on this path.

It is easy to point fingers
to declare others hypocrites
to be angry at those who deny
   those who don’t care
   those who embrace ignorance
and to blame those who refuse to see,
   who are blind willingly…

But playing the blame game serves us nothing –
because we are all trying to do our best
and systems necessarily corrupt the people who live in them
the same way that people corrupt the systems they create –

there is no one to blame but an abstract “us”
but even then the achievement does nothing
except throw the problem back in our face;

So if it is useless, if it is divisive, if it is distracting –
then bitterness cannot be the way.
It must not be,
if we are to hold onto our hope.