The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age

    Your Drama Hurts My Dharma

    By LisB on Fri, 10/01/2010 - 2:07am |

    The world is round
    and what goes around comes around
    It's all a cyclical sphere
    It's pain v. good and ignorance v. thought
    trapped inside a small, closed atmosphere

    So you'd think that the people inhabiting this world
    would be thoughtful, kind and aware
    One would hope that we'd all treat each other (and this earth)
    with much tenderness, and with care

    So how come so much cruelty
    Why does ignorance still exist
    Why is it with all of our wisdom
    there are some who choose to resist

    Can they not feel the pull of the web that entwines us
    Can they not feel the love in their hearts
    Can they not see the need of the many who suffer
    Can they only stand back and apart

    Stay ignorant, then, inside of your shell!  Remain deaf, dumb and blind in your hell!

    But don't force it on us, who choose what is good
    Keep your hate to yourself (as you should)
    For spreading your ire and your ignorance (bliss?)
    does us all harm and no one much good

    Give this universe, cyclical sphere, as it were
    all the kindness that it does deserve
    Otherwise you're just taking up much needed space
    and you really do quite have your nerve

     

    (Cross-posted from Once Upon a Paradigm)

    Comments

    I think of Stilli taking care of her grandchildren.

    I think of TheraP volunteering and taking care of her husband.

    I think of Momoe taking care of her grandchildren.

    None of these women seek anything in return. THEY ENJOY IT.

    People who help people; they like,they love doing it. It is not the burden, it is the joy in doing that they appreciate.

    First do no harm the Greeks tell us.

    But after that, one must find that doing good is enjoyable.

    Do you not think poetess?


    by Richard Day on Fri, 10/01/2010 - 2:23am

    I do, Dickon. 

    "Happiness and moral duty are inseparably connected."  - George Washington


    by LisB on Fri, 10/01/2010 - 2:41am

    You've landed on something there, DD.

    Adjacency.

    It's easy to be kind to those near us, easier still when there is a connection, be it familial or social.  The farther away people are, and the less connected, the more they become abstractions, figures on a chart or graph, and in some cases, "collateral damage".

    Policy decisions are not made based on people, they are made based on abstractions, and that is where one of our main human failings lies.

    As the Greeks had it diagnosed so very long ago, a tragic flaw.


    by Austin Train on Fri, 10/01/2010 - 10:10am

    Love it Lis!


    by tmccarthy0 on Fri, 10/01/2010 - 11:52am

    It occurs to me that my first comment (the reply to DD) was only partially addressing things.

    So...

    There are also people out there who, for whatever reason, find some perverse sort of nourishment in making others unhappy - or in worse cases, even experience physical suffering.  As I can't quite maneuver myself into that mindset, I can't speak to motivations, it's just clear enough observationally that they exist and do that.

    It's good that most of us are not in that camp.


    by Austin Train on Fri, 10/01/2010 - 12:22pm

    When you boil it all down, lis, we aren't as evolved as we like to think we are. Like it or not we are animals, and we still have those basic instincts. Some of us are probably a little more evolved than others, but, as a species, we still look out for numero uno, and the strongest survive. What I haven't figured out is where the "meanness" comes from...most of the animals in the wild do what they need to do to survive, but aren't "mean" for no reason. We humans seem to have a lock on that.


    by stillidealistic on Fri, 10/01/2010 - 5:24pm

    Ever seen a cat toy with a not-yet-dead mouse?


    by Austin Train on Fri, 10/01/2010 - 6:16pm

    That's not out of meanness, it weakens the prey and makes it less likely to injure the predator.


    by Donal on Fri, 10/01/2010 - 6:23pm

    Ever see a mouse waterboard a cat?

    THE MOUSE NEEDS ANSWERS!!


    by Richard Day on Fri, 10/01/2010 - 7:04pm