Day 1 – my first “blog”

September 28, 2018.

I am struggling.  I have a lot of emotions bouncing around inside me.  I watch the news from the US, from the Middle East, from Russia, and even from here at home in Canada, and wonder how we can continue to delude ourselves that we are, in any way, advancing as a society.  Families are being literally torn apart.  People are being labelled and categorized based on race, religion, sexual orientation…any and every possible way that someone can be labelled, someone finds a label.  The environment is slowly but surely collapsing, while governments turn a blind eye.  The only thing that seems to matter is the Almighty Dollar, and how to get more.  Corruption seems to be everywhere, in all aspects of our lives, and where we previously, even naively turned for comfort, now we only find more pain.  I am at a loss on how to reconcile the evil that surrounds us with the struggle to find goodness in the world.  Is there any left?  Why bother?  The temptation to gather my family close to me, and lock out the world is strong, but if we all follow that path, it will only lead to further isolation from each other and our world.  These giant problems will not be solved by selfishly protecting only ourselves.  Humanity is as capable of incredible kindness and generosity, in equal measure to how capable we are of horrific acts of violence.  Perhaps the answer is to indulge more in kindness without thought of reward, to put our emotional spirits on the line and engage with our fellow beings even if it leads to personal hurt or disappointment.  In an age of digital media, an actual human interaction means all the more.  Will it make a difference?  What can 1 person do when faced with such an all encompassing society of “what’s in it for me”?  Probably not much.  How much does 1 person need to do in order to feel that they are doing enough?  How can you measure “enough”?  Maybe it is never enough…maybe the point is to continue the struggle and not give up.  Maybe the struggle is the point.  I find the struggle hard today.