Are we just "an island", going through life?

No man is an island,

Entire of itself.

Each is a piece of the continent,

A part of the main.

Many of us remember this famous poem (For Whom the Bells Toll) by John Donne. I thought about that poem yesterday, when it was announced that O.J. Simpson had passed. Before you jump on me, let me clear the air. I thought he was guilty of the double murder which took his former wife and Ronald Goldman. The pain that Nicole Simpson's family and Ron Goldman's family went though was enormous. I was angry when OJ was acquitted (using his money to buy the "dream team" of lawyers). But I was also saddened that this very gifted man, went from hero and celebrity in this country - to a pariah. His death at 76 from cancer, was a sad end to what became a wasted life.

I remember when shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine, Donald Trump was asked his opinion on the war. Did Russia have any standing, or were they just invaders? Trump had an unusual answer. "Every day, thousands of Russians and Ukrainians are dying. I just want the killing to stop." He went on to say that if he were still president, he would have figured out a way to dissuade Putin from going into Ukraine. But it was the killing, the needless killing, every single life which was lost, which really bothered Donald Trump.

Why do we kill? End life? After all, it is a violation of God's scared law, given to Moses so many years ago. We kill because we have a carnal nature to do so. That is our brokenness. It does not matter if it is a criminal act by deeply cutting someone's throat, or shooting someone, or bombing someone - taking a life should violate the very nature of our humanness. It should trample on our compassion for others. 

Each man's death diminishes me,

for I am involved in mankind.

The question which has haunted me since I learned this poem back in high school, was simply this - what did John Donne know that many of the rest of us don't? Donne did not write this very short, yet famous poem as a man of faith (although he was raised in the Christian faith). He wrote it as a humanitarian. A human being, who wanted to be connected into the rest of humanity.

From Donne's perspective, each man's death should diminish us. If the man was next to sainthood, or a scoundrel - it should not matter. Why should it not matter? Some find solace in the way Donne finished up his poem -

Therefore, send not to know

For whom the bell tolls, 

It tolls for thee.