We live in a mixed-up world.
Note: This does not constitute an advertisement, but a social anomaly, witnessed. That’s me in the video. And no, I was not consulted before this was created. Hmm.
A lot is written below that I’ve provided links to for formal context, because I don’t want to be just saying stuff without citations, but (other than the first one about a 7-year old girl who studies under her parents’ food stall) feel free to skip them if you know the back story. Also, there is a poem at the end for you.
I’m in a place that uses stories like this one to stay strong: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/8jBlRVXXMXtWnyeMVXD9fw
I’m chilled by it.
I read an American friend’s reminder of perspective concerning a person born in 1900. They’d have been 14 when Europe exploded into war, the illnesses and intentional killings ended 40+ million lives in the next five years. Then they watched the Great Depression, and World War Two started before they turned 40 years old. At the same time, in Asia, Japan invaded Korea and China in 1911. They made it as far west as Thailand ~ and tens of millions died pushing them back out over the next 45-plus years.
We are way better off than we have been in the past. Though, we both forget that, and often seem unable to learn from our errors.
That’s the most frustrating part. How we don’t let the stories of history, and scientists lead us into the future…
America’s meat-animals are being killed and buried by volumes unimaginable, and yet, people will go hungry tonight. We couldn’t freeze them? Let them live? Perhaps slow down the rapid birthing process of the corporate farm? So many things are missing with the plans of how this is playing out.
Western media believes South Korea when they say they’re in single digits for new infections, but it can’t possibly be the case with China, (even though China and South Korea are working together in concert in the matter) because China …
The back and forth is a waste of time. People need to be thinking about how to fix the problem, not make a bigger one.
This story about discrimination is (I’m writing from Guangzhou, remember) at least two weeks behind.
As of three days ago, there is new legislation and functioning apparatus to create a civil space. Civil rights laws, without years of marching. Yes, it was bad… But you know what I like about China? People here actively learn from mistakes.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/chinas-guangzhou-counters-racism-to-africans-with-new-rules/ar-BB13BSLJ
Distrust is unhelpful and unfriendly. It doesn’t set a good example. We need more nice people. (Warning, the following video might make you happy. Don’t worry, I’ve set the next paragraph already. If it doesn’t piss you off, I would be deeply worried.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1axBGWFm4U
Sometimes people really suck. The news finally reached me about a man who was jogging in Georgia near his own home, in an otherwise home-styled neighborhood. But he was shot down by two hateful, paranoid crazy people, a father and son, no less, and then the DA distances himself from the case because he knows them, even called them nice things as he did it. That’s disgusting. Absolutely, utterly ill.
It happens all the time, but this time it got caught on video. So, this time, it made the news. Why does it need to be caught on video for people to start caring?! Okay, yea, all lives matter, but let’s let the conversation start with brown folks to get things on an even keel. That’s what ‘Black Lives Matters’ is getting at. White folks, or if I may, beige, need to recognize there is a problem with how certain situations are different experiences for people of color, and we need to be thoughtful about how America’s racism is basically a rot that needs to be extracted like a tumor for the health of our nation. We need to be talking about how it’s powerfully wrong to be reflexively triggered by the color of someone’s skin. If that jogger had been beige, it never would have happened. Listen to the 911 call. https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/11575170/911-call-death-black-jogger-ahmaud-arbery-mistaken-burglar/
I got brought up in a home of a family that had diverse neighbors and attitudes. I counted among my friends, people with big noses, green eyes, red hair, brown hair, brown skin, freckled skin, names that were easy to spell, some I can’t spell to this day… kids who were Italian, Indian, Jewish, African, Scotch -Americans. It just didn’t matter. One exception, I can recall, fueled (in second grade!) by an inexplicable anti-Communist fervor. (Sorry Zoltan!) Otherwise, our community lived the “the content of your character” perspective for the ten years I can remember. Then I moved from New Jersey to West Virginia, a land that did things differently and I have been disappointed with people more often since then. I’m sure I would have met unpleasant people in New Jersey eventually, but I hadn’t yet. So the contrast is stark to me even today.
I need to believe that people can be decent to each other in the long-run. I need to believe that people are willing to allow for healing, and be patient with others, and be reflective. I need to believe that people are willing to release the painful grip that the partisanship of modern American politics is strangling the country with. I need to see the world stop with jingoistic nationalism. (It was wrong to pick on Zoltan, he was an immigrant. We were stupid kids.) Being a fan of your home country isn’t wrong. A good example, I love the US, as a place, as a collection people. It’s where my family all lives, and we have the greatest highways for road-trips… Oh, and our festivals… Excellent. Mountains, nature, rugged deserts, beaches, rock and roll… So much. The diversity is what has always been our greatest strength. It’s only been in times of forgetting that, that the worst has come out. When we forget that our national treasures are the land and philosophical tenets created to protect people who were being persecuted in other places… if we forget that, we forget who we are. We need to come to terms with the native population’s place in modern times, and balance communities so that there is less draw from those in need, by somehow creating a mechanism that slows down the financially powerful from sucking the financial life out of those with less power. (I’m looking at you check-cashing companies and legitimate banking institutions that only charge a fee if a person has less money in their account than a person with more!) We need to introspect, be thoughtful. Otherwise, what exactly is it we’re doing? Because the whole world is cool. Living abroad for so many years has shown me that. It’s all worth being proud of.
900 words, 11pm. This has been a ponderous moment. May 8th, two thousand twenty. I hope you’re well.
We live in a mixed-up world.
That’s not really a bad thing. It’s just weird. Don’t let the weird freak you out.
This too shall pass ~
As the seasons change,
As the clock motors on,
As the brown hairs turn to gray,
The moments spent laughing,
Or crying together or alone,
Will all, one day,
Be memories of a yesterday
We’ve maybe not yet lived.
But one thing for certain is
That we’ve got to give
Our all, in every moment
Or it might yet pass and be gone.
For a moment is one of few things
That don’t return like the dawn,
Which visits daily ~
And thank goodness ~
For with each new morning,
The world is new again,
Fresh moments,
Fresh chances
For creative thinking
And for amends.
~Jim Jordan