22nd
GOOD MORNING FRIENDS: LisaNovaBlogs December 22nd 2008
Dear Everyone,
I leave the state of California for a much needed rest. I am going to a tropical land of intrigue and palm trees- Yippee!
I am glad to wash this year away. It has been a strange year with the election, the economy and the war ( a strange 8 years). We need to move through it and out of it. 2009, I hope, brings a desperately needed new tide.
…If only the new year could bring with it some sort of miracle or a series of miracles! Wouldn’t that be the berries?
What miracle would you wish for? Would it be self-serving? Or would it be a pervasively altruistic one? I hope for the latter…
But it has come to my attention that mankind tends to be selfish when given the oppurtunity to be so. Look what happened when the government de-regulated our economy, the boys, in the words of the great Steve Miller, “took the money and run.” But why? Is it human nature to completely fuck over your neighbor?
I guess I don’t believe that. Or I can’t affirm that notion because it’s human nature to want to endure. Without the hope or belief in some form of innate goodness in all people, then we are doomed…right? So I choose to believe in benevolence and the kindness of strangers even in the face of parsimonious “friends.”
Often, I will call upon history to help my mind calm down in the face of frenzied times. How have we as a people coped during hard times? And what are hard times in relation to one another? Are we even in “hard times” compared with past atrocities. Maybe it’s not fair to compare.
But I will.
Well, if you go back in our “American” history 150 years, what do we find?
You find an entire race of people shackled and chained. Human slaves forced to be slaves to other human beings. And I wonder, how were the slaves able to endure anything? How were they able to believe that goodness would someday rise? How were they able to go on and fight? How were the slave holders able to reckon with themselves once their atrocities walked outside into the light of day?
If you go back 16 years to Bosnia what do you find? You find the Serbs “ethnically cleansing” the Muslims through mass killings, camps and rape. How did the people endure? How did they believe that blood would cease to fall and compassion would be the norm again?
Or of you go back to now, in the Congo (the DRC), you will find that rape against women, children & elderly is the rule and not the exception.
I don’t know if I will ever understand people and human nature and why we do things to one another that we would not wish to be done onto ourselves. And I will not attempt to find the answers through my balmy little blog, but I will use this space as a place to ask the questions.
Why you ask?
Because…Because questions are the answers to everything. Because we don’t ask enough of them. Because we need to question everyone, even rich people :). Because, even though we are in “hard times,” when put into perspective it is clear that “this” is not as hard a time as others times may have been. And I say this hoping it is clear that I do not wish to diminish the fact that utter bullshit has been perpetrated against the tax payer, including myself. To say that I am disgusted by the actions of the people in power would be an understatement; I am riff with horror at the bad judgement and the pre-meditated actions of these “people.”
But we all need to put everything in perspective all the time… don’t we? Because only then does it become salient that we are but a small dot on the map of time. That our moment here on earth is flash, a mere blink.
Imagine that? Said John Lennon.
If we all Imagined that perspective everyday wouldn’t we then be “living life in peace…ah ha da da da…”
And I ramble… I will close. I ask you all to ASK…
What have we done? What will we do? What will we do this year? What will we do this year to correct our past’s mistakes? Should we hope for a miracle and if we should hope for a miracle, what would it be? What would you wish for? Would it be self serving or would it be pervasively altruistic?
I hope, I pray, I implore you… let it be the latter.
Love,
LisaNova
