I’M SEEING LIONS EVERYWHERE.

Not just the sweet face of Cecil, the slaughtered icon, but everywhere: a moss-covered statue in a neighboring garden; a year-old birthday card; a logo for a film company; an intro for a classic movie; a phone call from a friend whose name last is in Lyon.

Beyond the hate, everyone asks the burning question: How could someone do that? How could a human being with a heart and a brain slaughter an animal in cold blood? A member of an endangered species? A beloved of his country? A beautiful king of beasts? How could they entrap him, injure him, pursue him, kill him, and skin him, taking only his trophy head? The insults pile, one on top of each other. How!? Why!?

But how can people kill elephants and tigers? How can they murder another human being? A child? How can a woman shoot a cat with an arrow and post it proudly on Facebook? How!? Why!?

The fact that we can’t answer those questions says something for our own sanity. Those people have something wrong inside, something sick. Something missing. How sad for them. How sad for us that we have to live in the wake of their ignorance.

The hatred of these acts is overwhelming, but we need to overcome it. Hatred will only turn us into them. Pray, meditate, take a swim, a run or whatever calms you, then turn around and do one small thing to make the world a better place. It is our best, maybe our only, revenge.