A Broken World

Just a cry to the world for change.

 

Every morning when I wake up, after I’ve had a good dose of coffee, I start my day. As I prioritize and make lists to call this and that one, make this appointment, send off this paperwork, write this e-mail, run this errand and do whatever it takes to make everyone happy (which of course makes me happy also) from outside my window I hear the sounds of the world doing the same kind of urgent Polka. Swing yur partner round and round. Promenade! Cars speeding, people rushing, honks, beeps, yells, numb-minded zombies taking care of business. Now, I like a good hearty dance-your-boots-off day of productivity just like the rest, but some thing isn’t quite right here. What have we sacrificed? What about each other? What about ourselves?

Let’s examine a gradual trend in these modern times. A disheartening trend. A trend that if you notice it makes you say “Oh.” It’s time for a reality check for all those people who feel they are decent, good citizens. For all those who know you are not you need not read any further, it won’t matter anyway. Alright: step back. Pretend you are from another world and are seeing this one for the first time. Now look, really look. All around and everywhere. What do you see? Jewish, Catholic, Islam. Rich and poor. Urban and suburban. Hustling, bustling, moving ahead, and pushing forward. Self worth measured in success and money. More and more luxuries to ease our troubled minds and empty hearts. Toys to entertain and distract us from our lack of intimacy and natural affection and true love. Moving faster and faster, getting louder and louder makes us dizzyingly oblivious.

I sometimes get the urge and imagine that I jump up and yell a thunderous earth shattering, “STOP!!” Everyone stopping in mid-movement, cars stopping on a dime, everyone looking with open-mouthed stares, but all is silent. I scream, “Stop everything! Wake up! Look! Don’t you see?! This is ridiculous; everyone keeps going forward but what are we really accomplishing? The world is a mess, look around you! Don’t you see people dying, suffering, People cheating, lying, stealing? People hurt and angry, feeling scared, feeling unloved. People killing each other and themselves. Wake up, don’t keep blindly moving!”....Of course, I can’t actually do that, even if I had the nerve. I can only write it in this space, if only for a few to see and even fewer to really hear.

Don’t walk by, stop, and take a good uncomfortable look. Not your problem, you say? What about your own pain you hide? Stuffed down inside so you don’t have to feel it, see it. Wouldn’t you like to scream and reach down and pull it out in all its shocking ugliness? Hold the bitter lump up and yell, “Stop! Look! Don’t you see?” Wouldn’t it feel freeing to sling it away in a cleansing release and walk lightly away? Why do we keep droning on, carrying our rotting festering mixture in our guts, dragging ourselves forward so not to see or smell the rank scent? Why do we put blinders on to the stinking mess we’ve all helped create? Let’s acknowledge it, not ignore it. It would be the first step to a desperately needed change.

My imagination has no pull in this world; it has no power to initiate change. Nor will I ever be able to jump up and yell anything that the world will listen to, except maybe in my mind. So, go on, move faster, push forward. Move, move. Don’t look, don’t look!... God, don’t look…

Reviews

[Michiko]

What a wonderful piece of writing. It is sad that we are in our own little worlds and not seeing what is happening around us. And so true about how we measure self worth. It is refreshing to know that there is someone else feels and sees what I see.

Thank you for your insight. Well done.

[Tink7]

Thanks for another in-your-face piece. I like things to be that way, though I hide often hide my 'yells' for the world to "Stop and Look!" inside 'easy reading.' I do that because I have a (now waning) faith that a lot of people are ready to stop and look if one just takes them gently by the hand and goes with them.

In this piece, you haven't taken us gently by the hand... but you do go through the door first. You push it open with a yell and with good description. I know what you want us to look at, and so do many of us if we just think about it. We weep, but will we vote? We yell, but will we protest? We frown, but will we spend time with those who are the forgotten in the U.S. (and the world); the elderly, veterans of all wars, sometimes our own families and neighbors--those unable to 'push forward,' to 'swing that partner'?

I like that you freeze-frame everything for us, for just a moment. Sometimes just walking slowly instead of quickly reveals so much. And stopping to listen tells much more.
I think you've stopped to listen.
For this essay (?), I would just ask you to go over it to check your punctuation, mainly. The message itself is great; loud and clear. I especially like that you bring it right on home to each of us and our own sorry messes. Time to clean it up, indeed. Thx.

[TL Boehm]

thank you for the friend invite, your avatar/headshot didn't show up so I came nosing around - not that I am suspicious or neurotic or anything....but I am curious at times. And what I read, WOW - you spoke to my soul with eloquence and with that burn I feel so deeply yet cannot articulate before coffee without grunts and expletives....I too want to yell STOP. This was a wonderful affirmation of what goes on in my head. And now I know I'm not alone. Thanks - and welcome to the cafe! You belong here.