Dead Tree: T.Allen-Mercado 2009 [Edited from what I've actually been saying the past couple weeks.] I haven't had any packaged, processed or SOLID foods in nearly 10 days, I'm feeling a bit more alert and oriented than my bag o' chips and a brews posts. So I ask, "Really, what the hell is going on in the world"?
Before Michael Jackson's untimely death, we were a nation banded together by all of this hope for "change". We were sending out positive energies, mojo and prayers for the troops, our neighbors in foreclosure, our friends and relatives who are unemployed, unmarried, and just plain unmotivated. And it got me to thinking...
If Michael Jackson wasn't a mega star would we offer his spirit, his legacy and his family the same basic respect and human decency we reserve for those who can't moonwalk? If your neighbor mourned the loss of someone she felt connected to (for whatever reason) for a week, would you ask her to get over it? Would you remind him/her that there are bigger, greater, grander things of which to be concerned, or would you respect her need to bleed? Even, if your only reason was a show of respect and acknowledgment that feelings aren't right or wrong, they just are. Even if in doing so, you stood only to gain self respect. Then, would it be too much to ask?
As we buried our guinea pig yesterday and the phone calls came in, the e-mails, comments and convos, I reflected, for a moment on humanity. More specifically, humanity as it relates to mortality. We're quick to assign value to lives that aren't ours to qualify. We're quick to exalt, laud and condemn, at will; it's as if we're somehow absolved from the come around of what goes around. Why, because we can't moonwalk?
Peace
9 comments:
What is going on?
Well said.
Very well said and I'm so sorry about your sweet Beau. Who are we to judge other's grief.
Very well and respectably said.
I had a friend who lost an young adult child to suicide. After a while her family told her she needed to get over it and move on. I was sickened that anyone could tell another how long they should mourn or how they should mourn their loss. There is no right way or wrong way. There are no set rules for coping with the loss of someone you care about.
Everyone handles loss differently and everyone should be respectful of each other's right to mourn as they choose.
I totally agree! Everyone processes grief differently and at their own pace. It's pretty harsh to tell people to "get over it" whether they are mourning the loss of someone/something they personally know or otherwise. And I am sorry you lost Beau!
Yes so true Tameka. What's going on?
I love this post! You really hit the nail on the head :)
Unfortunately, it is precisely because we can't moonwalk. How sad.
oh! i know tha clarity that comes when the packaged/processed foods are axed. i was doing the raw/live food thing for over a year and was amazed at how clear and alert i was.
i hear you on this. it always amazes me how people are quick to dismiss the relevance or significance of another's life if that other was not "important" in the eyes of the one doing the dismissing. i'm always like, "but that was somebody's child, brother, sister. mother, cousin, etc."
this makes me think of how my heart aches for those whose lives are wasted away in war zones simply because they were there, were a part of the society where the war takes places. we only hear about the number of casualties as though their LIVES and the fact that they are/were human doesn't matter. sickening.
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