It’s tough to watch bloodied people fleeing the explosion in Manchester Arena tonight – gut wrenching, in fact. I haven’t looked at the news in a little while, so I don’t know what caused it. Maybe it was an accident with mishandled pyro or something. Maybe it was intentional. Maybe someone had so much blackness inside of them that they wanted to murder innocent children. Most of Ariana Grande’s audience are, in fact, quite young.

As we’ve progressed into this world where suicide bombings and terrorism aren’t just limited to foreign countries where we can’t imagine ourselves hurt or even inconvenienced, I’ve worked very hard to wrap my mind around it. I’ve asked myself some hard questions about nature and the greater universe.

I’ve come to this conclusion. A lot of you might not like my conclusion but I’ve been thinking about it for years. I’m pretty certain about it.

There is good and bad in the universe. You can’t have one without the other. We can see this proven in nature – it’s cruel and kind. Good and bad are related and proportional. We will never eliminate all the evil out there because it would throw the universe off balance. What you can do is shine your soul toward goodness whether your lens is a religious moral compass or simple compassion and a peaceful non-religious approach to life. I don’t believe “the end times” are literal. I’ve seen no evidence to say any god has anything to do with the world’s current state aside from human beings using deities to justify slaughtering each other. I don’t think any religious entity is going to save us from ourselves, nor do I sit and wait for that.

The basic balance of life boils down to this: be the good you want to see in the world. Counterbalance the bad with your time invested in making the world a better place than when you entered it. You have to accept that the bad part of the universe is never going to fade completely and you’ll make yourself mentally collapse trying to undo a balance required to allow goodness to flourish too. Give your time to people in need. Use your influence for positive change even knowing bad will never totally go away. Touch a few lives while you’re here. We can’t erase evil completely but we can influence each other to flourish in hope. Don’t wait for rescue. Get out there and show people how to live fruitful, productive lives by your example. That will do so much more to inspire than anything else. Don’t give evil the attention it needs to thrive.

That’s how you lead a fulfilled life.

May the souls lost in Manchester tonight find peace. All my love.