a palace made of smoke
a lamentation. a call to arms. a call to heart. a promise.
Imagine a world where each individual understood their place in this global assignment. This world, old and new, is so interconnected. We are interconnected. One of the many great robberies of our being brought up is the erasure of history. There’s no such thing as a solitary event in our collective timeline. Everything that happened created a chain effect for a people, a land, a body of water, somewhere.
I remember how anger rose up from my spirit when I was in college, realizing now that I am paying for my education and making some decisions on the classes I attend, just how much I didn’t know. How much was kept from me—not due to time constraints, but with intention. I knew staying in college forever wasn’t a viable way to live. I remember the thirst and the hunger. It exploded and I just wanted more more more.
We live in a shattered world. We are ruled by broken people. But we are not all broken. I have to believe there is still time for repair. I have to believe that I will see it in the next half of this long life I pray I have.
Imagine a world that understood we are supposed to care for one another. Deeply care. Actionably care. Do the caring, not just say it or feel it.
I keep thinking about comfort and that is something society attempts to wield over our heads. Look at how comfortable you are. You need to be more comfortable. Here, don’t worry about that pesky war over there. It has nothing to do with you. Nothing to do with us. As we sit in our cheaply made homes and clothes and use our expensive devices that came at a price. Not our own, no never. That continues to come at a price. We eat our food that was once cheaper and healthier but now smaller, more costly and at the hands of laborers with little to no rights.
I never want to be so swept up in comfort that I forget who pays the price. In the end, that’s all of us. It’s such a hard concept to teach to my children because I want them to both know while ease is our birthright, they have a vested interest in their own responsibility as stewards of this planet. It’s something they don’t see reflected in the society they live in, the school they attend, the children they are around. Sometimes I feel like I am burdening them the way I burdened myself. I have to believe what I’m offering them is a kind of freedom they don’t have to search for much later in life.