my conscience.
I watched Blood Diamond today. I do not want a diamond ring, should I get married (although truthfully, diamonds never did much for me anyway). I cannot believe the horrors that continue in the world that do not make the news or are not common knowledge in the public. It really does sicken me that truly, as I read once, if these inequalities occurred in the United States, you can bet there would be an uproar. I don't know how I, nor anyone, can afford not to do something about these things once we know. But what to do? There are so many countries, so many issues, so much needless dying going on that it's overwhelming. Where to start? Throwing money at something might stop some of the bleeding but it will not heal the wound. I think that we are bred into selfishness. I feel that way myself. I am so needlessly selfish when I look in my closets and think about how I would like some new shirts. When I don't finish all of the food on my plate. When I don't daily thank God profusely for what He's given me. I mean, we watch a movie based on truth, think, "that's horrible," and often just continue with our lives. Everyone wants equality and human rights, but again we are so selfish to waste our lives partying (as is going on outside this dorm room door as we speak), coasting, complaining about our parents, our teachers, our love lives (or lack of it), etc. when there are people that we share this planet with that FIGHT FOR LIFE on a daily, hourly basis. We cannot preach love until we show that it extends past our first-world materialism and artificiality and prove that it is for our beautiful world in its entirety. From the homeless in our own cities to the child soldiers to the starving to the sick to child prostitution and everything else that violates human rights. God knows about all of it and is watching it happen, and we use our power of choice and choose to do nothing; we use our free will and freely decide to stroll down Easy Street. It's an extraordinarily tempting decision...but I'm just not sure if I could live with myself if I chose to never step up and help with something somewhere. I could dedicate my whole life to it and feel like I'd gotten nowhere, but a life is still a life! A life is still a life. What if it was my life that people were throwing away? What if it was me living in constant fear, and knowing that the very people that are best prepared to help are the ones getting fat eating Macdonalds and wasting hours in front of the television? I used to think that global warming was a pretty important issue, and it is. I will continue to do my part to reduce emissions, but I no longer believe that it should consume our thoughts. Of course, as a Christian, I think it's important to bring hope to people along the way...but seriously, they need to be living before anything else can take place.
This happens to me every time I watch a true-story, world-issues movie. I get so riled up and angry and frustrated and hopeful and saddened. I am tearing up as I think about these next sentences. For years I thought I would be a musician because that's all I knew. I felt that my only (or at least best-known) ability was how I played the piano, and I could have been really good had I had the dedication needed. But I grew restless, and there was a period in my life where I found enjoyment in nothing. I'm still getting over that, but never mind. I've gone through dozens of "career changes" in the last two years. Now I am at university to study languages in order to make travel easier...but for what career? How can I be satisfied with a desk job translating or interpreting for big-wigs that could care less about me? Is there really any point to what I'm studying? Then, more recently, I decided to also major in Religious Studies in order to learn more about my faith and its background (as well as others...I don't much like ignorance) and, for a lesser reason, to reignite a fire I've been desperately missing for months. I've looked at schools for youth ministry. But now...I don't know again. I feel like I have a moral obligation to buy a ticket to somewhere and do something. I think that our own developed countries are far from perfect, and there is prostitution, drug trafficking, homelessness, hunger, and all the rest here as well. Can I leave here with a clear conscience and help out a developing country? Can I do that? Where in the world does one start...? It's just that hell has arrived early for hundreds of thousands of people around the world, and I hate to see pain in others so very much. Am I just wasting time by getting a university degree? A liberal arts education does not appear to ratify allowing 6000 children under the age of five die from unclean drinking water every single day. Six thousand. Some perspective here would be good. Every year, that's over two million lives that haven't even made it to kindergarten. Water. The most basic source of life. In fifteen years that's all of Canada, gone. Can we, in our million-dollar, air-conditioned, heated, plasma TV'd, astroturf-lawned, sprawling mansions on thousand-acre lots, continue to say, "It's not my problem"?
It's my problem and it's your problem, and we have every resource to fix it at our fingertips. We are rich in mind, in spirit, and in pocket. And yet (there is always an 'and yet') we are all on drugs to help our depression. Disclaimer: I do not at all degrade people who have depression; I sympathize and realize that it is gripping, consuming, and powerful. Again, I think a lot of this depression is rooted in our selfishness. Want want want, and don't get. Want stuff, want love, want money, want the easy way out, want attention, and want it all, and more, cost-free. We fixate ourselves (and honestly, I find this even of the Christian community) on all of the political issues. Same-sex marriage, abortion, evolution vs. creationism in schools, the Pledge of Allegiance, etc. "Our church marries everyone!", "Abortion = murder", and all the rest. I hold all of the traditional Christian views, but it is tearing us apart - the church and the country. If our efforts were as focussed on ending poverty as they were on debating what the Bible says about same-sex marriage (I love the Bible, by the way!), imagine what could be accomplished. Don't get me wrong, I think they are important issues that should be addressed, but honestly. I do not rank them higher than the value of a human life and the potential that holds. I say this from a Christian point of view and as a citizen of the planet point of view as well. We all share responsibility, regardless of belief, race, location, status. Regardless.
The child soldiers in the movie were like putty in the hands of the commanders. They were violated emotionally, physically, and mentally. They were given machine guns to shoot their family members and other people's family members. They were injected with drugs to give them a feeling of invincibility so that they would push on in the face of danger. They were told that what they were doing was right and they were creating progress. They did the dirty work and grew up far before their time...and not in a positive environment. Other children not in the army were lined up and had their limbs chopped off for what appeared to be no reason. Young girls were raped repetitively, the diamond workers shot for stepping out of line. You think you have a crappy job? Try some perspective on for size. I think positive endings to things like this trump all else, speaking as a member of the human race who lives a very cozy and comfortable life. If I were in a position to stake my life to save others, I would certainly do it without question. I have always maintained this, but I say it for very different reasons now.
You know, someone just knocked on the door and asked if my roommate or I would relinquish our ID to an underaged freshman, but we weren't blonde so it didn't work out. I don't understand the mentality of my generation sometimes. Occasionally I desperately wish that I was not instantly stamped with the "party-girl" image just because of the age we're in. Now, people assume you drink until you tell them you don't. This North American culture survives from party to party, and in between plans the next party and dwells on the last. They say we are the future, but not while we're drunk!
In an attempt to wrap up this epic thought, I would like to direct your attention to this song that I am currently listening to. It touches me so deeply and has since the first time I heard it, even though it is nothing that I have personally experienced. It kills me that this happens (and this song has made me cry in the past). "And my mother taught us not to call you daddy...but to call you father." Yet still, through this strife they experienced (the brothers in the band), they still believe there is a lesson to be learned of grace. I think grace is the most beautiful story that can be told.
This happens to me every time I watch a true-story, world-issues movie. I get so riled up and angry and frustrated and hopeful and saddened. I am tearing up as I think about these next sentences. For years I thought I would be a musician because that's all I knew. I felt that my only (or at least best-known) ability was how I played the piano, and I could have been really good had I had the dedication needed. But I grew restless, and there was a period in my life where I found enjoyment in nothing. I'm still getting over that, but never mind. I've gone through dozens of "career changes" in the last two years. Now I am at university to study languages in order to make travel easier...but for what career? How can I be satisfied with a desk job translating or interpreting for big-wigs that could care less about me? Is there really any point to what I'm studying? Then, more recently, I decided to also major in Religious Studies in order to learn more about my faith and its background (as well as others...I don't much like ignorance) and, for a lesser reason, to reignite a fire I've been desperately missing for months. I've looked at schools for youth ministry. But now...I don't know again. I feel like I have a moral obligation to buy a ticket to somewhere and do something. I think that our own developed countries are far from perfect, and there is prostitution, drug trafficking, homelessness, hunger, and all the rest here as well. Can I leave here with a clear conscience and help out a developing country? Can I do that? Where in the world does one start...? It's just that hell has arrived early for hundreds of thousands of people around the world, and I hate to see pain in others so very much. Am I just wasting time by getting a university degree? A liberal arts education does not appear to ratify allowing 6000 children under the age of five die from unclean drinking water every single day. Six thousand. Some perspective here would be good. Every year, that's over two million lives that haven't even made it to kindergarten. Water. The most basic source of life. In fifteen years that's all of Canada, gone. Can we, in our million-dollar, air-conditioned, heated, plasma TV'd, astroturf-lawned, sprawling mansions on thousand-acre lots, continue to say, "It's not my problem"?
It's my problem and it's your problem, and we have every resource to fix it at our fingertips. We are rich in mind, in spirit, and in pocket. And yet (there is always an 'and yet') we are all on drugs to help our depression. Disclaimer: I do not at all degrade people who have depression; I sympathize and realize that it is gripping, consuming, and powerful. Again, I think a lot of this depression is rooted in our selfishness. Want want want, and don't get. Want stuff, want love, want money, want the easy way out, want attention, and want it all, and more, cost-free. We fixate ourselves (and honestly, I find this even of the Christian community) on all of the political issues. Same-sex marriage, abortion, evolution vs. creationism in schools, the Pledge of Allegiance, etc. "Our church marries everyone!", "Abortion = murder", and all the rest. I hold all of the traditional Christian views, but it is tearing us apart - the church and the country. If our efforts were as focussed on ending poverty as they were on debating what the Bible says about same-sex marriage (I love the Bible, by the way!), imagine what could be accomplished. Don't get me wrong, I think they are important issues that should be addressed, but honestly. I do not rank them higher than the value of a human life and the potential that holds. I say this from a Christian point of view and as a citizen of the planet point of view as well. We all share responsibility, regardless of belief, race, location, status. Regardless.
The child soldiers in the movie were like putty in the hands of the commanders. They were violated emotionally, physically, and mentally. They were given machine guns to shoot their family members and other people's family members. They were injected with drugs to give them a feeling of invincibility so that they would push on in the face of danger. They were told that what they were doing was right and they were creating progress. They did the dirty work and grew up far before their time...and not in a positive environment. Other children not in the army were lined up and had their limbs chopped off for what appeared to be no reason. Young girls were raped repetitively, the diamond workers shot for stepping out of line. You think you have a crappy job? Try some perspective on for size. I think positive endings to things like this trump all else, speaking as a member of the human race who lives a very cozy and comfortable life. If I were in a position to stake my life to save others, I would certainly do it without question. I have always maintained this, but I say it for very different reasons now.
You know, someone just knocked on the door and asked if my roommate or I would relinquish our ID to an underaged freshman, but we weren't blonde so it didn't work out. I don't understand the mentality of my generation sometimes. Occasionally I desperately wish that I was not instantly stamped with the "party-girl" image just because of the age we're in. Now, people assume you drink until you tell them you don't. This North American culture survives from party to party, and in between plans the next party and dwells on the last. They say we are the future, but not while we're drunk!
In an attempt to wrap up this epic thought, I would like to direct your attention to this song that I am currently listening to. It touches me so deeply and has since the first time I heard it, even though it is nothing that I have personally experienced. It kills me that this happens (and this song has made me cry in the past). "And my mother taught us not to call you daddy...but to call you father." Yet still, through this strife they experienced (the brothers in the band), they still believe there is a lesson to be learned of grace. I think grace is the most beautiful story that can be told.