Starved

This one is heavy.  It will weigh on the mind. 

I have to stamp something physically with my thoughts.  There are many happy and sweet things inside of me right now.  I have enjoyed a lovely time spent with family and friends in the past days and I would love to express those feelings in an entry.  Now, here comes the lingering BUT.

 But, there is an image my eyes rested on and in no more time than it took the optic nerves to send the image to my brain, where deduction of meaning and reaction of emotion and all that stuff that happens in our magical brains that makes us creations and creators, I had a painful feeling in my core.  It is a manipulated image.  A graphic designer has taken liberty to create a stark portrait of reality.  And it is not abstract.  It is not even imagined.  It is simply a view from a distance.  It is a truth.

 It (and some other images and words) was sent to me via email and then I was asked by text “What did you think about that?” My words in reaction to this image (and the others):

“They were disgusting, sad, pathetic, devastating, repulsive, shameful, appalling, degrading, loathsome, grotesque, sickening, glutinous, and worst of all true.”

They responded, “So what are you trying to say?”  The joke with my friends is that I really need to learn how to form an opinion.  But, it would be hard to find any sensitive individual who wouldn’t react the same as I did.

This is such an ugly truth and such an accurate reflection of circumstances that it burns a hole in the pit of the stomach and burrows tightly within the hole, never leaving.  

It is a blessing to have ample food.  It is a blessing to have a selection of food and the ability to feed our bodies properly and with exquisite taste.  We know that.

And this, my friends, is what we have turned that blessing into…

Look around, look in the mirror, look on your plate, and look in your trash can.

Have you ever felt like weeping so much in your recent memory?

The thing that makes this worse is that we have done this and we see this and know this and we CONTINUE to do this.  Let’s just stop.  Let’s be appropriate and decent and respectful to not only our own bodies but for the bodies of the other human beings on Earth that are STARVING to DEATH.  There are people… children… that die, fall over and die, from not having food.  On the other hand, our disgusting society insists on Biggie Fries and we complain like maniacs when too few are in the greasy heap in front of us. 

 There is plenty of healthy food on Earth.  We shouldn’t be the only ones ashamed at our disrespectful behavior.  The criminal corruption that rules Africa’s continent- and other regions- that note and ignore this sort of tragedy should be… well, that’s the point, what could be done to equal this sort of pain and horror?  There is no suitable disciplinary action.  Only Karma comes close and then, still, only negative energy resounds.

I just wish them gone.  I wish the wind would blow the persons and organizations that starve their children to nothing.  I wish them gone and replaced by nurturers and celebrators- defenders- of life. 

That could happen.  They will die.  All people die.  And these insane assholes that hoard food and goods, stock pile foreign aid money, and deprive the citizens of their soil the basic right to eat and live and be happy… they will die.  Please God, replace them with good people that protect life.

If there is ever a time to pray to God for reason and good will to echo so loudly across the lands of this planet that it bursts the drum of ill intent and leaves simple peace and harmony called FED, then this is that time.  We don’t need a miracle; we need mindfulness.  Capability is not without- it is so obviously within us.  Basically, solutions exist.  In my opinion these solutions aren’t going to come from government.  Why?  Because we have government now and they aren’t doing anything about it.  We’ve had government all this time and they haven’t even made progress.  Why would we keep relying on failures grouped together calling themselves “government”?  Sir Isaiah Berlin states in his book The Crooked Timber of Humanity that aiming people and their exhausted efforts toward an unseen goal, one that is never attainable is “a cruel mockery”.  That applies to this idea from my point of view.  This is a mess that governments have contributed to and we are told to keep on trusting they will work toward a solution… yet they have no solution mapped out and they ignore blatant mishandling and they keep saying the same taglines with no results.  It is insulting.  They think we are rats racing toward cheese on a string.  They hold this string and pull, creating a situation that is forever “just within grasp” or “on the horizon”.  I am not quite sure of Alexander Herzen’s entire intent when he wrote these words because I read an excerpt of the essay that contained them- but these particular words are basic, relevant, and make sense: “… a goal which is infinitely remote is no goal, only… a deception.”             

No, I think this solution is going to come from collective agreement within the minds of people all over this planet that this can and will be solved and then simply act in accordance.  That may sound vague and broad.  It is.  That’s the point.  But, what would happen if every consciousness tuned into solving this very solvable matter?  If every person on a boat simply leans to the right, do you think a ripple results?  And that ripple continues on, gaining momentum and energy until all of that displaced water crashes on a shore making an impression. 

In essence we are all on a boat together.  Let’s lean our minds toward what’s right.