Today is breezy and much cooler. I have showered and feel fantastic! All of the symptoms I experienced during the heat wave have disappeared completely. Last night we slept soundly and deeply, without the air conditioner running. This morning I have cooked for the first time in over a week; a macaroni salad.
Sometimes I write long letters to myself here on this journal. I write some of the bitterness of past experiences. I write the pain of being on the receiving end of indifference, contempt, condescension, hatred, intolerance. I write the disgust I feel towards the willing perpetrators of such un-evolved behaviour. I write the misery of living in a diseased human culture, infected with self-destructive and ubiquitous greed, that has become so predominant that greed is considered desirable, admirable, “human nature” and “normal”.
I write the pain.
I delete the pain.
Then I turn inward, to connect with what is good about being human, and I look around me to see where it is reflected.
I find all around me love, tolerance, compassion, integrity and kindness. This I find in those who respect their own unique humanity first, and can therefore afford to appreciate it in others.
Hidden from the public eye, all this, and these people survive, and thrive. I believe this was the glue that allowed the human species to survive.
Facebook has the same affect in my life as television did, when I watched television. At the end of the day, when the power has been turned off, the room is empty, no one is really there, the false and phantom relationships vanish. Try it. Sit in your room, turn off the TV and/or the computer and/or the radio, and strike up a conversation with…
If you are very lucky, someone is there to fill in the blank. For an increasing number of us, the void remains intact. We no longer, for the most part, rely on the people around us for our daily sustenance and contact. We rely on remote governments, public figures, and corporations for our daily bread and sustenance. Read newspapers to see what good that is doing the human species.
Worldly Distractions
Weather
23°C
11:00 AM EDT Saturday 20 July 2013
Condition: Sunny
Pressure: 100.8 kPa
Visibility: 16 km
Temperature: 23.3°C
Dewpoint: 14.9°C
Humidity: 59%
Wind: NW 15 gust 30 km/h
Humidex: 27
Quote
“The longest journey is the journey inward.”
Dag Hammarskjold
1905 – 1961
“Dag Hjalmar Agne Carl Hammarskjöld (Swedish: [dɑːg ˈhamːarɧœld] ( listen); 29 July 1905 – 18 September 1961) was a Swedish diplomat, economist, and author. The second Secretary-General of the United Nations, he served from April 1953 until his death in a plane crash in September 1961. He is among three other people to be awarded a posthumous Nobel Peace Prize. Hammarskjöld remains the only U.N. Secretary-General to die in office, and his death occurred en route to cease-fire negotiations. American President John F. Kennedy called Hammarskjöld “the greatest statesman of our century”…
In September 1961, Hammarskjöld learned about fighting between “non-combatant” UN forces and Katangese troops of Moise Tshombe. He was en route to negotiate a cease-fire on 18 September when his Douglas DC-6 airliner SE-BDY crashed near Ndola, Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia). Hammarskjöld and fifteen others perished in the crash.
A special report issued by the United Nations following the crash stated that a bright flash in the sky was seen at approximately 1:00.[9] According to the UN special report, it was this information that resulted in the initiation of search and rescue operations. Initial indications that the crash might not have been an accident led to multiple official inquiries and persistent speculation that the Secretary-General was assassinated.”
Your entry is very timely. My friends and I have been feeling overwhelmed by the tidal wave, the tsunami, of contempt for women, disregard for non-white human life, prejudice against immigrants, GMO poisoned foods, you name it. We’ve been feeling as though the ignorance and hatred and corporate greed is consuming us alive.
Then last night my UU group, my SGM, had our biweekly meeting. There we were among friends, like-minded people, people of good will, compassion, with a thirst for justice. We vented about the Trayvon Martin killing, the disrespect for people of color, our personal experiences and great sadness.
We then turned to reminding each other of the kindness and goodness, the compassion and caring, we’ve seen and experienced. The progress we’ve made in social justice issues, and the hope that the next generations will see our pain and our love and learn from it.
I came home feeling much better, and I wish the same love and compassion for you, hope you’re feeling better, too.
I do turn things off each day. I am turning the TV off a lot lately too, although I find comfort in my laptop in exploration of topics that intrigue me, but in the silence of my house. Well, sort of silence. The constant ringing of tinnitus in my ears is always there, and now the drone of the AC unit going over in the corner is always there. The traffic going by on the street causes some noise but not too much with the windows all shut. I guess I really never live in total silence, like I’d like to.
So glad to hear your complaints from yesterday have gone. I’ve just made a new batch of peppermint stick ice cream and that macaroni salad you mentioned is sounding might good to me right about now. Maybe tomorrow…
((hugs))
You’re so right, we do need interactions face to face with people. I’m glad you’ve recovered from your heat/humidity sickness.