Tuesday Thoughts ... on the human syndrome

I feel most alive when I remember that tomorrow is not promised to me. I feel most human when I remember that no politician, no law, no culture, no job, no religion can save me from mortality. I feel most free when I am myself.

But I am not alone, I have not made it alone. There have been people standing by my side, loving me, lending me their hand when I certainly would have fallen. I feel most grateful, most human, most vulnerable, most free, most me, when I remember that.

You know there is no redemption to war. None whatsoever. We can try to justify it. Yes wars have gained "freedom" - but why was that freedom ever taken away in the first place? I adhere to New Hamshire's spirit - "live free or die". Many of us are not free at all. We are worried about our own future, Lou Dobbs of CNN is worried about "the Middle Class of America", dear old Bill O'Reily of FoxNews is worried about the leftist media and retaining America's moral imperilaism, people are worried about jobs going overseas to those Indians. Hey - they are human, those Indians. Smart, savvy, and ready to take the challenge to survive. How inhuman some of us can be, how self-righteous and boring! It breaks me to see that people are treated as lessers because of the longitude/latitude under which they are born.

Thank goodness that Al Gore is worried about the environment, thank goodness that Zainab Salbi is worried about women who are victims of war, thank goodness Mohammed Younus is worried about enabling people living in poverty - thank goodness for doctors without borders, thank goodness for mothers who love without limit, thank goodness for people who care for people.

People quabble about how many Iraqis died - hey even one human death is one too many. What if it was you? Palestinians use desperation as an excuse to be suicide bombers. There is no excuse for murder! Heaven does not wait for you. Israelis think they are the chosen ones - what exactly did God choose you for? Why do any of us think we are one iota more special than the next person, than the person across the ocean? We are all as mortal, as human, as vulnerable, as anyone else. Some extreme groups in the Indian subcontinent keep their women under lock and key and some fathers believe in honor killings of their daughters. I don't know what god they worhsip.

Don't you see it does not matter, Indians, Israelis, Americans, Zimbabweans. In defining ourselves by nations, we allow ourselves to be defined by man-made boundaries. Man created these maps of boundaries - but they should not define us. My family used to despair when I refused to acknowledge my country of origin and declared myself a citizen of the world. I am not denying my race or heritage - I am defying man-made boundaries. The world belongs to me - as it does to you. If an Iraqi dies, if an American dies, if an Israeli dies, if a Palestinian dies - it is no different from me dying. Another human, another citizen of the world leaving, hopefully for a better place.

Do you see - you are no different from me - and I am no different from you? Do you see? Our points of view or places of birth or locations don't make us different, or better. We share the same human syndrome of mortality.

The French lower house of parliament passed a bill making it a crime to deny that Armenians suffered genocide at the hands of Ottoman Turks after WWI. In retaliation, the Turkish parliament is drafting a bill to make it illegal to deny that the French committed genocide in Algeria. People are up in arms spending time and money passing bills about PAST genocides, when nothing has been done about the CURRENT cases of rape and murder and cold-blooded genocide in Darfur? There is massive genocide and violation of human rights - right now! Infuruating!

If I were to die tomorrow, I would not give a damn about being right or wrong, or about which land belongs to whom, or about the left or the right or center - I would just want to express to the people in my world that they mean the world to me. I would want them to know that they shaped my life, that they made me feel so much, that they made my day, any day - that I am so grateful to them. I don't plan to die tomorrow, I plan to really live and love tomorrow - and today!

This is an original water color I purchased recently from a living artist, feisty delightful 85 year old Margaret Hart.

"Laugh to forget, but don't forget to laugh" - Arnold Glasgow