i see this general sadness in the eyes of everyone i interact with, though. it is a sadness i have never before seen en masse.
when i was a kid, i saw it in my mother's eyes when she came home from a bad night at the hospital. i have seen it in my family's eyes after Nick died. i have seen it in the eyes of rhesus monkeys in an AP newswire photo, when they were recaptured after escaping from a laboratory where they lived their lives in cages, completely at the mercy of human beings. i have seen it in the eyes of people when war is upon their land, and in the eyes of people in ghettos and barrios and on reservations.
but i have never before seen it in the eyes of just the general population - newscasters and pop star fans and people in the post office.
there is a certain anxiousness around the edges of this huge, general sadness -- like that of someone protecting a glass ballerina in the middle of a street hockey game.
in many ways, i do think this is a good thing - that masses of people have sadness in their eyes like lab animals and war orphans. i do not know how humanity, as a whole, can progress in any way until everyone learns to acknowledge and live with the sadness of the present and past.
most people in my country, however, do not choose to acknowledge the perfectly natural rationale for such huge sadness.
indeed, many people think there is something "wrong" with them, so they go to a doctor who tells them they have a "chemical imbalance" and gives them some antidepressant drug that numbs the pain of living in this environment that is killing the world, thus further removing them from facing the repercussions the human race has created.
still and all, sad is sad, and strange as it may sound, i do see a great hope in this mass sadness, even if many people in my country and the world are content blaming everything on that entitled fool, george dubya.
~ Inga Muscio from Autobiography of a Blue-Eyed Devil
i see this general sadness in the eyes of everyone i interact with, though.
it is a sadness i have never before seen en masse.
when i was a kid, i saw it in my mother's eyes when she came home from a bad night at the hospital. i have seen it in my family's eyes after Nick died. i have seen it in the eyes of rhesus monkeys in an AP newswire photo, when they were recaptured after escaping from a laboratory where they lived their lives in cages, completely at the mercy of human beings. i have seen it in the eyes of people when war is upon their land, and in the eyes of people in ghettos and barrios and on reservations.
but i have never before seen it in the eyes of just the general population - newscasters and pop star fans and people in the post office.
there is a certain anxiousness around the edges of this huge, general sadness -- like that of someone protecting a glass ballerina in the middle of a street hockey game.
in many ways, i do think this is a good thing - that masses of people have sadness in their eyes like lab animals and war orphans. i do not know how humanity, as a whole, can progress in any way until everyone learns to acknowledge and live with the sadness of the present and past.
most people in my country, however, do not choose to acknowledge the perfectly natural rationale for such huge sadness.
indeed, many people think there is something "wrong" with them, so they go to a doctor who tells them they have a "chemical imbalance" and gives them some antidepressant drug that numbs the pain of living in this environment that is killing the world, thus further removing them from facing the repercussions the human race has created.
still and all, sad is sad, and strange as it may sound, i do see a great hope in this mass sadness, even if many people in my country and the world are content blaming everything on that entitled fool, george dubya.
~ Inga Muscio from Autobiography of a Blue-Eyed Devil
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