Tragedies great and small across the world, and what they do to us.

[mckitterick]

I was just reading a friend's post about getting shot in the butt by a drive-by, and I burst into a big crying jag. At first I couldn't figure out why that would bother me so much; he was okay afterward, and it even inspired him to stop carrying a gun, himself.

I realize what whacked me was thinking of how people treat each other: a delayed response to what happened 10 years ago on Sunday and all the other ways that people hurt and destroy one another. Sometimes we can ignore the bad news on the radio, sometimes we can forget the inhumanity of humankind to others, but we don't really stop caring, the pain and disillusionment doesn't stop building. We hear stories about inhumanity like those assholes in the Republican debate audience who laughed at the death of the uninsured, or what the Palestinians and Israelis are doing to one another, or the Syrians, or the Afghans; we hear about violent robberies, we suffer our own small but devastating personal tragedies, we encounter any of a million other conflicts big and small that blaze around the world every single day. And, usually, we're able to distance ourselves from those things, resist getting too emotional about them.

But the pain is still there, bubbling under the surface, and once in a while one little thing is enough to open a crack, and the pressure is released in a great flood of tears.

I love this horrible and wonderful species, but sometimes it breaks my heart.

Chris

Comments

[m-danson.livejournal.com]

Here... look at something small and uplifting.

http://community.thisiscentralstation.com/_Mysterious-paper-sculptures/blog/4991767/126249.html

[carmy-w.livejournal.com]

Agreed, and my sympathy.
(and the wonderful politicking going on right now is just the icing on the cake!)

[weaselmom.livejournal.com]

Wait, what was this about Republicans laughing?

[bogwitch64.livejournal.com]

It breaks our hearts, yes, but humanity can also lift us so high, we can't see the ground anymore.

Just yesterday, I clicked on a link from a friend about the water evacuation of Manhattan on 9/11. Every tugboat, coast guard, ferry, circle line, yachts, small vessels--they swarmed the river. They carried people out of the city. Something like 500 thousand people in nine hours. It made my skin tingle and my nose sting just thinking about how heroic, how genuinely good human beings can be.
Here it is, if you're interested: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDOrzF7B2Kg&feature=related

[stina-leicht.livejournal.com]

i'm with you.

[curieuse.livejournal.com]

Here's another vote that some humans are good to one another (disregard the godvine link and DO NOT READ THE COMMENTS):

http://www.godvine.com/Autistic-Man-Singing-National-Anthem-Gets-Some-Help-407.html

[silverfae.livejournal.com]

Did you see the group of folks that lifted the burning car over and pulled out the motorcyclist trapped underneath?

Faith in humanity restored indeed. Arian posted it on his FB page.

[pointoforigin.livejournal.com]

Aw--you have a great big heart, and it shows. It shows in your writing, too. Like in Transcendence, which was a huge creative effort to show the pain and the beauty, and to wake people up to the fact that it doesn't have to be this way--even without an alien artifact to help. You really put your heart into that, and anyone who reads it with open eyes is going to see that. When your heart cracks, remember what Leonard Cohen said: "There's a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in."

[siro-gravity.livejournal.com]

oh!!! a dude who cries for the right reasons = LOVE!!!!

seriously, though, i know what you mean and i get the same feelings of despair for what we are capable of.

i think that people have an amazing capacity for cruelty and also an amazing capacity for kindness and decency. it's just that the cruel things we see hit us upside the head harder than the solace we get from the good.