Just had a wonderful five days in Florida with my Granny Daughter (an inside story). We made a great team as we executed her plan for a fabulous bridal shower for her soon-to-be daughter-in-law! We worked our butts off each day from about 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and then relaxed with a glass (or two) of champagne and some nibbles. The outside world seemed a million miles away.
But, of course it wasn’t. The television was full of news of Egypt’s protestors, the water crisis in Zimbabwe, and the horrible bludgeoning death of David Cato, the Ugandan gay rights activist. The weather was wreaking havoc across the country with unbelievable sums of snow piling up in the northeast and another monster storm marching across 2500 miles of our country. Cyclones in Australia and Shinmoedake volcanic eruptions in Japan. A woman in Tampa shot her 13-year old in the head on the way to soccer practice and then returned home to shoot her 16-year old daughter in the head as she sat at her computer doing her homework. Seven teens are arrested in Philadelphia in the beating of a 13-year old boy. Jordan’s King dismisses the government amid protests. Bullying so brutal young teens commit suicide. We even have a bed-bug epidemic! And the list goes on and on.
What in the world is happening? Is our fragile planet buckling under the strain of our abuse as our population grows and grows? Floods, earthquakes, cyclones, tornados, snow, sleet, ice, are the norm not the exception it seems. Are our minds so boggled by the complexity of life today that we act irrationally and turn into murderers and abusers of each other? Or is it the drug culture that has spawned unprecedented violence and random shooting, robberies and worse? Has our moral fabric torn and shredded so much so that we are rude, inconsiderate, and oblivious to anyone’s need but our own? Have our voices of decency been drowned out by the din or our own insecurities?
What in the world should we do? As one small, insignificant person I feel so helpless and unable to do more than monitor my own behavior and vow to be more mindful of what I say and what I do and how I treat people. We cannot control the weather – or can we? Is our bizarre weather caused by holes in the ozone layer or global warming or perhaps by the billions of tons of pollutants we spew into the atmosphere? We can switch to hybrid cars and invest in clean energy production. We can recycle each and every can, paper, and jar. We can reduce our carbon footprint.
What in the world can we do? We have a voice, even if it is a small voice, and each of us should be courageous enough to speak out and speak up when we encounter discrimination and injustice in our life and in our community. We can change the way we live and conserve our energy and our resources. We can honor all life and treat it with respect. For if we don’t it will only get worse and worse until……………you fill in the blank. My blank would say, until “asking ‘What in the World’ won’t even matter anymore.”