This photo was recently sent to me through e-mail from an old friend.
I’m not always as receptive to existential posts that point out what’s wrong with our system, our society, our own way of thinking.
Some of them are exaggerated. (Being desensitized to human suffering: While I agree there is a huge problem with apathy in our country, I’ve met so many people and have read so many more stories of selfless acts that can at the very least bring the balance into equilibrium between caring and non-caring people.)
Some sound downright judgmental. (You should have just changed your job if you were unhappy…um, yeah? Say that to the single mother who’s working three jobs, has no real retirement funds, and can’t afford to go back to school to get a new set of skills for a job that may NOT even be available when she finishes.)
It’s as if these statements throw up a huge putty-shaped veil and we throw on our own situations onto it and see how they apply. They don’t take into the account the individuals’ many struggles they have to fight every day.
Posts like these seem like glorified trolling, and maybe I’m being cynical, but it’s easy to point out something that doesn’t work and wrap them up into a war cry for a V for Vendetta-esque revolution.
But I like this post.
Especially the part of not ‘taking power back’ but rather ’empowering ourselves’.
It has a tone of accountability at the same time bringing an element of hope. No single person can do it alone, it’s a group effort.
Maybe we won’t change the world in this lifetime, or even 100. But learning to share the struggle with one another, to me, is a step in the right direction. And each step eventually begets another step until those steps create miles.
Onward, then!
Soul on Fire 