DoulaMomma said...Sometimes I feel like Andie McDowell in Sex Lies & Videotape re. garbage (if you know the reference).
It's so freaking overwhelming. I know there are things I can personally do (& I do them, to a great extent), but it's hard to stand by & watch this all take place & feel pretty damn helpless.
Yes, it is very hard to realize that the ice is melting away and there's pollution in the air and water and earth and erosion and desertification and the Amazon is being gobbled up and we just seem to be throwing it all away.
But, in the meantime, I have my husband and my kids and my family and my friends and sunny days and dramatic storms and art and music and food and laughter and irony and so it's all still so beautiful. And you have yours, and she has hers, and he has his and so on all over the earth.
So, what to do? We all can do what we can do. Can we do more? Can we all strike a balance between what we really need and what we must do?
I think life is beautiful and amazing. That's why it is all so tragic and awful that we are screwing it up. I am awed by the butterflies we have seen this summer grow from egg to a tiny line of a caterpillar to a plump caterpillar to a jewel chrysalis to a new tentatively flapping monarch. I am awed by my children daily. I am awed by my friends and their kids. My husband amazes me...How could the ice be melting away? Why is the ice melting away?
It's gonna take more than just shaking our heads and tisking. It's going to take more than people bitching on blogs and on the radio and on TV. We could be yelling like Howard Beale from the top of our lungs and it wouldn't do anything...unless it was in unison. That does work. That has always worked. That does make change. But, not if we're all just amusing ourselves to death (which is a great book, by the way). If we're just living our insular lives without ever extending outward into the world's problems, we will never fix them. Ultimately, they really are all of our problems. The world is us.
I think in our personal lives, in our human dealings with one another, we could do well to follow Bobby McFerrin's advice--Don't Worry, Be Happy. Be gentle with one another. Be easy on yourself. Be lovely. Don't get out of joint and disconnected from what is true and important.
The problems with the world, however, I think we need to all rise up and speak out about. It is not freakin' OK that the ice is melting and the seas are rising and we continue to amuse ourselves by buying plastic crap that pollutes at every step of the manufacturing/shipping/purchasing/throwing out process.
I'm mad as hell and I'm not gonna take it any more!!
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We watched that movie recently and my husband joked with me about sounding like that same character (Andie McDowell in SL&V)- I really understand how Doulamomma feels. That feeling became that much more acute once my daughter entered the picture. The complacency I see in some people, most people, constantly makes me question if I'm missing something, if I'm being alarmist, if they know something I don't. Is it wisdom that keeps some people from caring? Some sick, twisted wisdom that I have jet to soak up? Because as crazy as it sounds that what it feels like sometimes. It's all so troubling...
OK - good point about the the need to celebrate the bright side while we work to fix the rest. Here's my good news "Be Happy" thing to add. I just took two of my kids to the movies. The youngest had to go to the bathroom & when I was taking him, I noticed this quite old woman helping her ailing, older husband move along with a rolling walker - she was coaching him along so lovingly (maybe he was recovering from a stroke?). They were heading toward the door & no one was there to open it, but I had to get my son to the restroom. I quietly asked a kid from the theater to help & not only did he get the door but I saw him accompany them outside & help them to their car. Nice.
Also, I spent the rest of the day at a birthing open house...so many people came out...I do believe that peaceful birthing will help turn the world around to being a better place...at least I hope so.
Thanks for the reminder to tune into what's good while focusing our righteous anger.
Let's return to a theme
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