Living hard in the heartland.
Tags: Life Lessons, Future, Relationships, Life, Love

I’m in line at my local Publix, scrolling my news-feed and waiting to check out,when I notice a young woman with a baby trying to catch my eye. She’s twenty something. Untidy ponytail. Her eyes are hollowed and her face is red and puffy. Maybe she’s crying but I can’t tell. I can barely see the baby, it’s wrapped in a blanket and limp in her arms, head lolling at an angle that could not be normal. Our eyes meet and she gives a little wave. Uncertain if she should approach.

I rang out, and met her at the exit.

“I’m so sorry,” she began. “I don’t hate to ask but could you help me get formula for my baby?”

The child’s eyes were wide and vacant. Otherwise, he looked well, his cheeks were pink, blonde hair fell in soft waves around his tiny face. The limp roll of his head and empty blue eyes told me more than I wanted to know -but I asked anyway.

“What’s wrong miss?” I found it hard to understand what I was seeing. A woman barely older than my daughter, struggling to feed a special needs child, here in America. I didn’t notice when my wife took the woman’s elbow but the three of them soon went back into the grocery store. My wife bought the formula. Later, she told me she also got her diapers and a meal from the deli.

It’s easy to miss the suffering around you; it’s on the news, on our phones, on TV and the radio 24/7. We become numb, turn away. Drinking poison from the media’s well of woe is not what we signed on for. Not what we wish to occupy our day with. We know the the world is a terrible place. That we are in lock step, marching toward some sort of -ism. Fascism is the popular choice but hard on its heels is socialism. Two opposite ends of the human continuum. And here we are, stuck between Scylla and Charybdis hoping we may yet avoid catastrophe.

hope is a luxury we can no longer afford.

But to see that young mother in distress broke through the wall of self preservation we all erect to save our sanity. A fellow human being half way to ruin. Alone, in need and hurting. We can look away no longer. Horror is everywhere now. It comes home, finds you in your neighborhood. Broken people are everywhere, looking for healing. Hope. Answers.

What can anyone do? The human soul cannot long stand the torrent of abuse without itself becoming damaged. Normal people get twisted when bent far enough. Think of the guards at Auschwitz. Evil lurks in the dark places of us. It only needs an excuse and a willing participant: you.

And therein lies the secret of its defeat.

Take away its excuses and refuse to participate in its game.

Evil wants you to look away. Evil insists you should live a life of self interest. Be happy it whispers, you deserve it.

You know better. You are better.

Aren’t you more intelligent? Better looking? Better in some way?

In every way?

They are taking away what’s yours.

They look different.

They believe different things.

It’s us vs. them.

We better get them before they get us.

That’s how evil begins. With you, the best one in your family, in your neighborhood, or your workplace. This isn’t about blame, this is the way evil gains access to our souls. It lurks in the unexamined life. It whispers dark nothings spreading blight and despair. It writes itself into our unspoken thoughts silently knowing we almost never question what we believe or where it came from.

It doesn’t have to be that way.

You get to decide who you are. You get to choose. Are you us or them? What are the limits of your tolerance? Where do you draw the line beyond which you will not cross? I’m suggesting you examine your beliefs; because they are the precursors of thoughts; and thoughts directly create the world we choose to live in.

If it’s us vs. them, how hard is it for us to defend ourselves? We will fight to the death.

But if there is no them, if it’s all us, then how hard would it be to find a way to help each other? We don’t have to repeat the mistakes of Nazi Germany to know deep in the heart of us, we will never consciously repeat that atrocity. This can only happen when there is no ‘them’.

“Human reason can excuse any evil; that is why it’s so important that we don’t rely on it.”― Veronica Roth, Divergent

For me, I decided there is no us, no them. It’s all us; we are here today to get through this thing called life. [as Prince said] If I can help someone on the path, I will. That’s where I drew my line. I’m asking you to draw yours. We can’t wait for a better tomorrow, hope is a luxury we can no longer afford. Pick a side. Light or dark. The struggle for tomorrow begins today, with you.

The battle between good and evil is first fought in the human heart.

Refuse to participate.

The media and the profit driven marketeers manipulate us using a variety of persuasion techniques but their biggest puppet string is fear. Fear gets to us where we almost never think. It seeks out the lowest layer of our psyche; our unthinking lizard brain. Fear awakens our primitive instincts. It sharpens and redirects our attention towards imminent danger. With repetition, it consumes us. That’s what the news mongers are doing- whipping us into a frenzy of fear at a level beneath conscious thought. Don’t allow them such unfettered access to you.

If you can ignore their bad news, do it. Flip the script. If you can’t, then minimize contact with it, it’s purpose is to suck up your energy and time and bring you back for more. Refuse to play this game. Instead, find ways to include positive content in your day. Look for the good stories, make an effort to find the silver lining in things. Accentuate the positive without going overboard. Our minds seek out and respond to negative things -but that does not mean we have to embed ourselves in the seamy underbelly of human existence. We don’t have to live there.

Second, do no harm. If we would be bearers of light, we must commit to the first principle of love. Do no harm. Don’t break the law, don’t attack an enemy that does not exist. Alternatively, live forward. If you would experience kindness, be kind. If you want love, be loving. If you want affection, be the change. Do it first. It can’t be repeated too many times, what goes around comes around. it’s spiritual law. Put out into the world what you would receive. Reap what you would sow.

What have we been putting out into the world in our names? Where is the love? Where is the kindness? Where is humanity we would save even as our world unravels? Our deeds return to us; we can finally say past is past, what’s done is done. Now that we know better, we can do better; it’s time to deliberately put our hands to work in the service of the light.

All this takes, is for us to deliberately live in such a way that your life touches those around you for good. The ripples of actions taken in love reverberate forever.

Changing the world is possible, but it happens first with me, with you, one person at a time. And it can start today.

With love,

Mitch.