RSS Feed (xml)As much as I try and spin it the erosion is clear. The warehousing of human beings is wrong at best and things aren't getting better and really it's worse. Folks are sicker and older and sometimes the weight of the endless suffering and bags of belongings and the limping and the crying kids and the vacant stares and the weathered fingers and the old shoes and I could go on and on and it's simply too much. The beauty is there, it always is if you look hard enough but the suffering has it's own flavor, strong like a red chile or a head of raw garlic, it's there and you taste it and no amount of water can soften it's bite.
It's time to send us your May Just Posts. The Just Post Roundtable is coming up on June 10th so between now and the 7th we invite you to send us links to posts on social issues and justice, ones you've written or ones you've read. You can send them to me at girlplustwo(at)yahoo(dot)com and everyone is welcome and it's free and we don't rely on animal testing or kill any trees in the process so there are no more excuses. Join us.
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18 comments:
My friend. There's just nothing to say. Love to you.
The situation is the same in the Philippines. A lot of people are getting poorer, they have no place to go and worse, some even resort to prostitution, robbery (and a lot of things that you can imagine) just to get through for a day.
How I deal with this is not really putting the blame into anyone. I believe that the best way to help this people is to show how they can help themselves. :)
There is hope in every situation. On top of it all, love always prevails.
Yes, words are not sufficient to describe that worse than bad situation...the warehousing of human beings. I'm so, so sad for all of us that our society cannot, will not find a better way.
How do we make it better now? Not later, not in abstract. Now?
Sometimes, it just seems so hopeless, pointless. You know?
And yet you keep going.
Last night, my sister in law and I were having coffee and she mentioned that she was assigned a speech about homelessness in one of her courses. She said she was going to discuss healthcare for the homeless, but she didn't know what she thought about it all. So I gave her the right, not a privelege talk and said how the hell can people get on their feet if they can't even have their basic needs taken care of. We pay for a public education why should this be any different, the need is even more basic. And I watched the light bulb go off in her mind and it was something. Hopefully she'll go and set off some more light bulbs in her classroom, too.
It is small, isn't it? Too small in the face of something so overwhelming. But every little bit is something.
You're amazing. I melt and whither in front of scenes like that.
You make it better one person at a time, to answer the commenter above. I just finished this book about a doctor who works mostly with the poorest of the poor in Haiti and he described his life's mission in a way that made me think of you, jen: "We want to be on the winning team, but at the risk of turning our backs on the losers, no, it's not worth it. So you fight the long defeat .... I don't care if we lose, I'm gonna try to do the right thing."
all you do, all you see...
i cannot imagine how you don't just SCREAM. hugs to you.
It's so hard to see or hear other people in pain.
It can be so overwhelming to think of the scale of the problems. How can we make things better for so many? But reading about the work you do reminds me how much it matters to help even the few.
it's overwhelming--life being so beautiful and so grotesque.
(hugs)
Trickle down economics just isn't working out for most people (she said cynically.)
That was beautiful (she said sincerely.)
The warehousing of human beings IS wrong. So wrong.
You are a brave and beautiful soul
Raw, indeed.
I know. It's awful.
Honestly Jen, sometimes I don't know how you do it. I mean, I know, but...I don't know.
It's fitting that your words are just so beautiful and powerful.
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