Vol IV: #53 What A Time
When I head out early to work or pray, I often wonder about the other drivers I see on the road. Where did they come from and where are they headed? How did we come to share this tiny sliver of space at the same time? Similarly, I stare at the gobs of products on the grocery store shelves and ask who’s buying fat free almond butter or spicy cool ranch fried chickpea crisps? Someone is. And then I glance up at the ceiling and consider the lights and the roof and then a look down at the tile at my feet. Someone built this, and now more people work to keep the lights on and the freezers freezing.
Isn’t the world a wonder? Honestly. Even though we bitch and moan about what isn’t, or lust after the products we’d love to own, I hope I never lose the appreciation of the now. And I get it, people in some countries are starving and dodging bombs. But we aren’t. Most of the world isn’t.
And yes, right outside the grocery store sits a handful of pock-marked meth heads. Trash all around them, dogs in tow. And down the street are the isolated seniors to whom I deliver groceries. Most of which have physical disabilities and spend there days alone in their trailers and apartments. And when I think of them, I cry.
And yes, to the abused children and domestic violence survivors, all of it is terrible. But think on this. All of the evil in the world always existed. At no time in human past was it free of hunger, disease, war, and hate. So, I ask, would you rather suffer abuse with or without a toilet? How about economic uncertainty without air conditioning? Yeah. No, thank you.
As for me, even when another major war comes a calling and the idiots go full idiot, I will always be grateful to be alive in this era and not before.
