David McElroy

When I first saw the tweet, I was pretty sure it was a joke. Police in England have been making a big deal of “getting weapons off the street” for years now, so they tweet photos of weapons they’ve confiscated.

But surely this photo was a joke. Right?

“These items were found during a #weaponSweep near #MackworthHouse #AugustasSt during #OpSceptre,” said the tweet from police in the Regent’s Park area of London. “Safely disposed and taken off the streets.”

But it was a real tweet from real police in London. It appeared that someone had frisked a local handyman or janitor and stolen his tools.

I see two pairs of pliers, two small screwdrivers and a pair of scissors that would be at home in any office desk. The remaining item might be a file of some sort, but I can’t tell for sure. I just know it’s bizarre to consider these common tools to be weapons — and it shows the end result of a world which tries to use force to eliminate risk.

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They didn’t seem like people I would like. I was walking down a long aisle at Walmart behind a couple and a boy who I assume was their son. They were snapping at each other about some disagreement.

He called her a “bitch” several times. She had a choice word she called him, but I won’t even repeat that one. They didn’t seem to care that anyone else was around. The young boy just walked in silence.

Then I noticed the back of the woman’s t-shirt. I had trouble reading the typeface at a distance at first, but then I realized what it said.

“Take me as I am or watch me as I go.”

My first thought was to laughingly think a man would be lucky to watch her leave, but then I thought more seriously that the slogan sounded like an attitude they might both share. And then it occurred to me that this is a common attitude among modern people who don’t want to see their own flaws and their own responsibility to improve themselves.

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This has been a difficult week — and I feel very alone tonight.

How can I possibly feel lonely when I spend most of my days surrounded by people? I can talk with friends. I can talk with co-workers. I can even walk into half a dozen restaurants and stores nearby and find people who are glad to see me.

But none of that is any comfort tonight. The truth is that my surface-level interactions with most people make me feel profoundly alienated. Maybe it’s my fault. I really don’t know.

In the scripture which recounts the Jewish creation story, God realizes after He’s created Adam that he needs a partner. In Genesis 2:18, God is quoted as saying, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”

Although we rush right by this statement in the creation narrative, I think it’s one of the most profound theological insights of scripture.

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