Where's Your Sticking Point?
Didn't End World Hunger Again Today inspired a jet stream of comments. People took my basic question and hopeful tentative answer in a zillion different directions and I thank you for them all. I have been educated.
I was particularly struck by blogger Genevieve's rephrasing of my existential question, and I quote: "Is it wrong to pursue self-actualization...when so many in the world still live at the base of the pyramid without even the basics needed for survival?"
That about nails it. I wish I could express myself so well.
To ratchet the thought a little tighter, how can we justify painting The Last Supper or playing our flutes and dancing like the Three Pigs when a six year old girl is about to be raped for the eighteenth time in a brothel somewhere in Cambodia? Shouldn't we drop everything else and fold our arms like Mr. Clean and say to Evil, "Okay, that's one step too far. You've had it, buddy." and just fucking take him out? (excuse my beatnik language)
Please forget the logistics for a minute. This is an existential question. What's important around here? Isn't there a moment in each of our lives when we have to say, along with e.e.cumming's beatup conscientious objector, "there is some shit I will not eat."
This is it for me - my sticking point. No more little girls sold into brothels! No more dancing on the hilltops until the kids are home safe and sleeping in a clean bed with you and me guarding the door.
Then maybe we can get back to art. You know what I mean? Maybe your sticking point comes somewhere else. But doesn't it come somewhere?
What's important around here anyway?
I was particularly struck by blogger Genevieve's rephrasing of my existential question, and I quote: "Is it wrong to pursue self-actualization...when so many in the world still live at the base of the pyramid without even the basics needed for survival?"
That about nails it. I wish I could express myself so well.
To ratchet the thought a little tighter, how can we justify painting The Last Supper or playing our flutes and dancing like the Three Pigs when a six year old girl is about to be raped for the eighteenth time in a brothel somewhere in Cambodia? Shouldn't we drop everything else and fold our arms like Mr. Clean and say to Evil, "Okay, that's one step too far. You've had it, buddy." and just fucking take him out? (excuse my beatnik language)
Please forget the logistics for a minute. This is an existential question. What's important around here? Isn't there a moment in each of our lives when we have to say, along with e.e.cumming's beatup conscientious objector, "there is some shit I will not eat."
This is it for me - my sticking point. No more little girls sold into brothels! No more dancing on the hilltops until the kids are home safe and sleeping in a clean bed with you and me guarding the door.
Then maybe we can get back to art. You know what I mean? Maybe your sticking point comes somewhere else. But doesn't it come somewhere?
What's important around here anyway?
Labels: Meaning of Things, Simple Justice, Sorrow of Life
posted by Christopher Newton at 11:46 AM
9 Comments:
Yeah! This is the good stuff!
Not that the other stuff wasn't good. Yeah. You know what I mean.
Just discovered this site, so this comment may be redundant to what was said earlier...
but your words remind me of the quote by Edward Everett Hale who said:
"I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the something that I can do. What I can do, I should do. And what I should do, by the grace of God, I will do."
The use of children as sex slaves is a particularly depraved and despicable abuse.
I'd say, if you feel a calling to work on an issue that really matters like this, don't ignore it. Do what you can! On the other hand, don't beat yourself up when it turns out you're not the Saviour.
You're right that we get so wrapped up in our comfortable lives that our willful ignorance and neglect of our fellow man is shameful.
In failing to "love our neighbors", we participate in the perpetuation of suffering. Can it be denied?
I agree somewhat with the.chronicler. Don't throw art out with the bathwater. Art and creative pursuits are what qualify as individuals and societies, whereas simply living quantifies us. This is where the whole thing about evolution comes into it for me. For me this, while not the last word, is an argument against evolution of species.
See, if it was all about becoming the most efficient organism it would have been over with aeons ago, would have stopped with bacteria or maybe a higher level like a shark. But we see that God didn't stop with the most efficient. Efficiency is a quantifier, an objective. No, God went for quality, creating finally a subjective creation rather than more objects. Warts and all, God created us to be excellent and not just efficient.
Consciousness is a quality of living things. Even the amoeba has that little spark of consciousness as it can move away from things that repel. What separates humanity from the rest of living things is our ability to be conscious of our consciousness, to ponder our relationships and our emotions.
But I disagree with the statement that there is no dilemma. It's not just about donations, though they are of great importance. The underlying question that I think we're avoiding is how can we justify having a high quality of life when so many others suffer just to exist? Where does our concern turn into action? If we have answers and no action, aren't we just a lot of noise? If we truly want to be Christ's followers, don't we have to do more than say "be warm and well fed"?
It becomes obvious sometimes, like Chris infers, that there is evil to be dealt with and it screams for our attention. Our capacity to solve the problems evil create though, is sometimes small or nil. Of course swe have to go after the Hitlers and the Pol Pots and the Sadaams of the world and the child slave traders. But will we solve it? Maybe we can take them out and make the world a better place for a while, but there'll be no peace and the wars won't cease until HE returns. That part is truly out of our control.
I'm not suggesting doing nothing. I guess I'm coming from a different place to the same old conclusion. Think globally and act locally.
Hope I'm not blowing the PP's cover here by revealing something he hasn't shared in capital letters yet. He certainly is the Pig Dancing on the Hilltop Playing His Flute, Tra-la-la, but he has a very compassionate set of bones within his nice pink porcine hide.
We became aware of the little girls sold/tricked into prostitution several years ago and Pig went ballistic. We've since moved beyond the "oh dear, that's terrible, but what can we do?" stage. God planted the seed of an idea in our brains, but it hasn't quite formed beyond a tap-root yet..but it will! I loved the chronicler's words on images on the last post. Our image for the little girls, who are incredibly beautiful in God's eyes, WILL come to pass, and you can be sure that PP's readers will read about it!
Darn it, Patrushka blew my cover. Now I have to get a different color floppy overcoat and another big hat to cover my ears and another big false beard. Not much I can do about the snout but often people don't notice it.
I just wanted to welcome Belladonna to the Blog. You sound like a pretty cool character, although I think belladonna the herb causes hallucinations. I knew a guy who tried smoking Asthmador once - an oldfashioned asthma remedy that had belladonna in it. He saw little men and Martians and it was spooky. I appreciate your quote from Edward Everett Horton of all people. Like Leo said, it's not just about moving the numbers between bank accounts, altho that's really important. I feel like we need to instigate an uprising against evil. An actual uprising! I have no clue how to get started. So I don't talk about it much. But maybe the time has come. I don't want to be "small and nil" anymore. (See new John Carter of Mars post)
Hey Chronicler, thanks for the URL list. I know Tearfund but I'm going to look at the others.
I know that art is not the main point of the entry, but... We are in a world full of visual images. Some photographer out there took a picture or a video clip of something that the world otherwise would never see. And all of the sudden you become part of a bigger world. A painter tells a story to a person who might never sit a read a book telling that same story. A musican in a foriegn country helps you connect to his culture when you put his CD in and just push play. Some graphic artist somewhere even designed the layout for this blog so that we could sit here and discuss world issues. I think that without all the artistic work being does out there, that most people would not be as attracted to exploring the world around them and would remain carelessly unaware in their sleepy little corner of the world.
I was just listening to a recording of Brer Pig's old amigo from the Haight, Jorma Kaukonen.
"Wish I was sittin' in New Orleans, sittin on a candy stand."
He's singing about God only knows what? He's free from the old days (remember the Jefferson Airplane from 1966 and further?). He was a founding brother and he walks and talks free of it all. Rev. Gary Davis made a bigger difference than anyone can imagine on this boy. Jorma is free and running. Jorma lives the gospel better than anyone I know. We talked once a few years back and he's a beautiful person to talk to.
Jorma runs the "Fur Peace Ranch" in Ohio and he teaches music and guitar talents to ghetto kids on scholarship and mugs that have too much money too. He gets instructors that work with the best and the worst, making them real players in the musical field.
"Jesus gonna make up my dying hand. Then you need that true religion" (Rev. Gary Davis).
What do I do to make it better? I really don't do anything but gripe about death and squalor. I avoid horror because it hurts too much.
I'm reaching the point where, as it always should, my "yes" should really mean "YES" and my "no" really mean "NO".
Or, maybe "know"? Then I'll need that true religion.
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