"It's so lifey" says my friend as from an open jar wingless fruit flies stumble into the fish tank. Supported by the surface tension of the water they bob about until they are spotted and eaten by the goldfish below.
It's so lifey... Real, brutal, cyclical, the transfer of energy, growth, change.
The Internet brings me news. That of national and international importance and the opinions that come along with it.
Slavery.
Racism.
Abuse of power.
Abuse of innocence.
Oppression of the disadvantaged.
Degradation of their humanity... Of our shared humanity.
A lot of the time it's the obligatory ranting about the political system. I am liberal, I am progovernment (not the current administration, but democracy in general and the machinations that keep a country running successfully) I read opinion with interest. Issues that I never thought affected me, swerve into my view through the comments and shared content of my friends.
The opinions vary.
Some leave me saddened at the reality faced by others and those people are afraid. A few shock me into realising that some friends don't share my own views and those people are afraid too... And that scares me in turn... As I see my own moments of weakness where I am all too quick to "other" people... And I am grateful to the country that saw fit to rescue my grandmother from the slavery she had endured during the 1940s. I am afraid that in this time, here and now, she would not be treated so kindly.
Closer to home people I know and love, live the fullness of life. And I hear of a friend in her 50s who lost her mother... A close friend whose grandfather is gravely ill, a young family grieve for their newborn daughter. And I weep. A mother comes upon the anniversary of the death of her son. A friend contacts me daily to say how bleak their life has become in their own eyes, and I will them to keep reaching out and walking forwards. Three young women share their daily battles with a crippling chronic illness that is all too real yet so often dismissed.
I know so much life, too much life and I can not unlearn what I know of the pain and sorrow of others and I would not want to. All of those who are suffering reached out and held me when I was, they listened, they commiserated, they reminded me of life's fragile beauty and they held my hand and kept me connected and journeying forwards. This reminds me not to fear... To remember that my opinions are built on the foundation that this life is both good and bad, but more importantly... it is all important.
