Living well comes down to doing for others
When you listen to the news, do you hear it and let it go, or do you question what is heard? Do you take life for granted?
Perhaps for most of us we hear what we are drawn to on a personal level. Perhaps we hear or see what we can handle and nothing more.
For example: a recent article on the Pope, and the 200,000 youth who attended a world youth rally by the Roman Catholic Church, struck me as unusual when it said the Pope has been text messaging the attendees with religious quotes, signing BXXVI. I asked myself, is he preaching to the converted?
So how can he find a way to text message those who would not hear him, most PR professionals would ask. But, if people drown out what is not of interest, shove out of sight what is distasteful, then how, pray tell, to pardon the pun, do we enliven the ones dead in their social consciences?
Another example: CBC Radio, July 21 was discussing a new program in Kenya. It is called Baby Rescue and was formed to save babies abandoned in fields who were born of incest. Immediately, my mind flashes to a similar program here in Fredericton. It is called Cat Rescue. Wild cats are caught, spayed, neutered and homes found for them.
Suddenly, my brain splits as the dichotomy and parallels leave me shaken. How is this possible, that we, on one side of the world, work to save wild animals, while on the other side of the world children are left abandoned in fields of mud? What is this saying about us? What is this saying about our ability to help with large scale human devastation?
The Pope reminded the youth that over-consumption is scarring the planet. He also warned of violence, as entertainment, scarring the human soul. I could not agree more.
In the past years I have spent a great deal of time encouraging people to turn off the violent shows, break the habit of watching television with a tired brain that will accept anything, and of course to become socially sensitive to their surroundings.
According to the PR professionals, the message is still not out there. How, then, do we tell the story to the person who does not read, nor listen to the news, nor care about their fellow man? Frankly, I do not think it is the person who is missing that will solve our problems, but the persons who are present.
Perhaps this is why the Pope is text messaging the youth before him. It will then be up to each of them to get the word out.
In like fashion, this message, told in so many ways, is really about making you become a teller of stories.
Having you share your thoughts and feelings about international atrocities, as well as local ones, is the only way we can move society to take action.
Do we not, as a society, need to be reminded of a few things we are taking for granted?
These are simple things, like we are sometimes selfish, disrespectful of freedom of speech, disrespectful of the rights of each person to make their own choices in life, when they have the ability and mental capacity to do so, to name just a few values we seem to have lost.
But mostly, we are good people who are lost in a world devoid of deep compassion, meaning and purpose. Our challenge is to turn down the volume so we can hear the love in our hearts. According to Oxford, love is also a verb.
Pat Carlson is an advocate for the disadvantaged. Her column appears every second Thursday and she can be reached at changes@nb.aibn.com
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