Yes, the news is awful. Write about it. What can you say about it? How can you endure it? How can you live a life that will give you some satisfaction that you can do some good in the world? Here goes…
Turn the Steering Wheel April 8, 2022
Okay, the truth is out, in full electronic display.
The world sucks, Hate reigns.
Pacifists go on the offensive as soon as their loved ones are torn apart.
Mankind never learns. (By the way, why “mankind”, rather than “mancruel”?)
Did Mother Nature infuse our DNA with self-destructive tendencies so as to vanquish great gobs of us when we become too saturated upon this wheezing planet?
Are we programmed to switch into attack mode at the click of a registered stimulus—
A border dispute? A religious difference? A political disagreement? Ever increasing awareness of the super rich— people blasting holes in the atmosphere for FUN? While the homeless numbers swell past the millions.
Yes, all this is true. And comparatively viewed, has always been true.
It takes muscled arms on the steering wheel of our personal vehicle to turn our windshields towards
the sun, the crops that can grow, the rivers still flowing, the children still singing.
Shall we dissolve into anger and despair in our living rooms or turn off the television and plant some flower seeds, bake lasagna for a neighbor, put water out for the wild turkeys on a hot summer day?
Open our castle drawbridges and walk out into the world.
Break a law and bring soup to the man living in a tent, and some dog food, too, for his companion.
If we have the basics… the bottom of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs: food, water, shelter, air—
Then we are able to carry on,
To motivate to the next level,
To put one foot in front of the other,
And to pick up the hand weights and exercise our arm muscles.
Because then we can turn
The steering wheel.
And take a good look
At the wishes and needs
In our own neighborhoods.
I.M.Paine