I try to keep my life and writing positive. Yeah, I know I don't always succeed, but it's my goal. Right now I am torn and wonder if others have this problem. How do you stay positive and still work to bring about change? If you aren't dissatisfied with the status quo, why would you put yourself out there with opinions, your money or whatever work you put into that change? If you are dissatisfied, how do you release it to work for the cause and not let it swallow you?Some think it's too late to make changes. They believe given the last two elections, and the gerrymandering both political parties do to make sure there are only two, no real change is possible. Some believe beneath both parties is the same power structure, pulling strings like puppet-masters. Sometimes I'm one of those 'some,' but mostly I want to think it's not too late. That we can work out the problems that are facing this country and make it what we once believed it stood for.
If we are satisfied, if we stay placid and calm, will we do what is required to make change happen? If we fight for the change, dream the impossible dream, speak out even when we are making enemies for the speaking, do we risk spoiling our own lives for no gain?
After we get to a certain age, should we settle back and enjoy life or is this the very time we could be working for the futures of those grandkids and kids that we love so much? I am one who very much believes first reponsibility is to our own little piece of the world, do the work we can do with our lives, kids, friends, neighborhood because the energy that goes out from that will affect more than we know, but is it enough?
Storms in the desert can be fierce. The wind blows, thunder booms. Multipronged lightning bolts streak through the sky. The storms do damage, they kill people, they are awesome and frightening. After the storms, you see the flowers seem to pop up overnight; insects fly through the air that you see no other time of the year; the grass grows everywhere; rivers that are usually just sand are full of water and in flood. Without the storm, new growth would not happen.
So can you generate a storm without negativity? Must we be willing to give up some peace to make a difference in the future-- assuming it's not too late.
(The photograph is from my front yard in Tucson, Arizona, after a particularly spectacular summer thunderstorm)
4 comments:
That is such a beautiful photograph. Just stunning.
I have to admit I vacillate between thinking it's too late and we've got to keep trying. If I think about it long enough, I feel that as long as we're here and breathing, it's not too late to work for change.
I think we absolutely must be willing to give up a little bit of our personal peace for the bigger peace. I just never seem to do it, and I'm not sure what I would do to work for the bigger peace.
I believe that life is a great wheel and it just goes around and around. Every generation believes that this time everything is so bad that we will destroy ourselves--and religious people become convinced that the end times are here.
I can't speak for you, Rain, but as for me, I spent many of my younger years working in my own ways for social justice. I wanted to do my part to change the world, to make a difference. I'm just not there anymore. I leave that task now to the younger ones who are inclined to have the energy and passion to bring about change. Maybe I shouldn't be this way, but I gave myself away for so much of my life. I guess I feel justified now in not entering the political fray, though I'm so happy stuffing mailings, making phone calls or doing media relations for charities or causes I believe in. But--the leaders need the elders to help, too--and I support older people who do still want to be active in social and political justice.
I think in various different ways, you both do something about it through your blogs. By sharing your world, your beliefs; and in your case, RD, the beautiful photos you both take of the natural world around you, you are working for something positive.
And as for cycles and end times (might blog on that sometime), cultures do come to an end and new ones replace them. Physical is by its very nature changing but will come to an end for all things-- including someday this very earth.
I think, if you look at history, quality of living has to be fought for and not sure we can count on anybody else to do it for us. I grew up in kind of a golden time in this country, but in many others that same time was anything but golden. It's obvious in history that those times are not free. Many generations have had to fight and die to have what we grew up pretty much taking for granted.
I also believe each person needs to do what seems right for them. Little things that someone does might turn out to be bigger than they know...
My concern here is how to live a positive life but not ignore what seems to be going around in the world to do it. I have jokingly said I want to go live in the hills but then remember I already live there :)
actually it was not golden for all even in this country at the time I went through my childhood and came into maturity. Many of us were just ignorant about a lot of what was going on. Some would like us to stay that way.
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