Smells and humanity

Have you ever noticed how powerful smells can be in triggering memories and emotions?

Springtime in DC and the northern Virginia area is an amazing olfactory event. One can go outside and inhale deeply and positively smell LIFE! There is a rich smell of earth, plants, and growth. It is amazing! In Arizona, one only smells these types of odors after a rainstorm; when the humidity in the air seems to hold the delicate scents of the desert plant life. However, here in Virginia the scent of plant life and earth is overwhelmingly heavy in the humidity of spring. It smells like even I, who has killed every single plant I have bought from a nursery in Arizona, can create a verdant garden that will be overflowing in an abundance of flowers and fruit. Although, I think I will refrain from the temptation of purchasing any innocent victims from the local Virginia nursery at the Home Depot. However, there is something truly magical about stepping outside, looking at the Potomac River and inhaling all of these heavy springtime scents of new life, earth, greenery, and flowers; and picturing the centuries of people who have had the same sensations.

I have to contrast this with an earlier olfactory experience today. I went once again to the Holocaust Memorial Museum today. It is such a horrible, yet necessary, reminder of the capacity for inhumanity that is within humanity. But the most horrible part of the museum for me is the room of shoes. The smell emanating from the shoes is ever more devastating for me each time I visit the museum. I don't know if I can go back there anymore. Each time I go into that part of the exhibit I am struck by the humanity of the shoes, but this time the smell of the leather was so much more pungent. I don't know how to describe the smell. Today it was like nothing that I have ever smelled before. I have to ask myself was it a smell of anguish? of evil? of despair? or just a smell of rot? Human rot? Then, it brings the question...Can we only ever see this evil rot after the fact?

What is the right answer for us to be truly the best of humanity? Do we focus on the wonderful smells of the verdant earth in springtime, ergo the beauty of of what we can be? Or do we boldly look at the rot that can infect humanity and fight against it? What is truly the best way to create good in our time and in our world?