What about bad guys?

A nine-foot, four-ton Buddha carved from a single block of jade is on exhibit at a Vietnamese Buddhist temple in south Seattle. There was a picture in the newspaper; Jordan noticed at breakfast.

J: Who is this lady?
R: That’s actually a man, a statue of a man named Gautama Buddha.
J: Who is he?
R: He was a very special man, very calm and kind and with good ideas. So people make beautiful statues to help remember him.
J: What was his idea?
R: He had a lot of them, but one of his good ideas was that we are all connected to each other. Everyone matters to everyone else.
J: What about bad guys? And strangers?

I thought – wow, way to go straight to the heart of the matter, you know? I admire that.

I’m sure I did not give the best possible distillation of Buddhism, and I’m pretty sure Jordan did not find my response about bad guys and strangers particularly convincing (that people who do bad things are originally good people who get angry or troubled, and that strangers might be friends of friends of ours). I just liked what Jordan said.