Ohio's Pretty Polly

Today I cried for a woman I did not know. A woman named Jessie Davis, the mother of a two year old boy who watched as she was taken, 39 weeks pregnant, against her will to be murdered and left in a meadow in the beautiful national park my children and I often frequent and visit with friends.

It is chilling, and at the same time, this is the world in which we live. There is emotional, psychological, and physical violence that surrounds us and touches the lives of people we know and don't know every day. What some people will do out of pride, or fear, or hate is beyond my ability to understand. So I just breathe and accept that there is no limit to the harm some will do to others, whether they believe it is for love, or freedom, or in the best interest.

When shadow overtakes the ability to reason, when perceived power is the product of self-delusion and lack of consciousness, Ego will stop at nothing to satisfy its lust. But the Ego on such a hunt will never be satisfied.

May the Earth give refuge to the spirit and bodies of Jessie Davis and her unborn daughter Chloe, and may her little son someday find peace from the atrocity he alone witnessed.

And may we all find protection from those who will stop at nothing because they don't know how.

Pretty Polly
(A version by The Byrds, befitting the 40th anniversary of the Summer of Love)