Big, big picture

Before getting into working toward having "no poor among us", I want to treat something else.

I have been thinking about it because of a conversation about another family who is going through a hard time, including death and a seriously ill child. 

(Plus, when I was thinking about how many families could be described as "going through a hard time"... well, it seems to be pertinent.)

Anyway, something I was trying to say -- probably coming across as weird liberal lady -- is that it is not surprising that things are harder now or that children are taken in by it, no matter how unfair it seems.

When we are talking about why bad things happen to good people, religious people can sometimes fall into this trap of thinking it is something specific designed for them with lessons they need to learn, or even a punishment.

Without completely ruling out that there can be elements of that, my philosophy is more that we live in a world with disease and decay and with a bunch of imperfect people making choices. That brings plenty of opportunities to learn and be refined. I absolutely believe that we can get help and guidance in dealing with things. I believe that they are important. 

I also have seen that they can hurt a lot, and you can be grateful for experiences without feeling like choosing them. Thinking that everything is specifically designed feels too cruel, and I don't believe in that cruelty.

So far that is all pretty basic, and probably something that I have written before.

What was coming up in the conversation is that things are worse now. There is more cruelty and more stupidity and more spite.

Maybe this is a good time for Matthew 18:7:

Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!

We do not always think about some of those connections, like how pollution can lead to more asthma for children, or various toxins lead to more cancer. Cancer has broken many hearts. I'm not saying it can't happen without industrial pollution and additives in food, because it does. However, if we had a world where we treated the environment as precious and people as important, I think we would see a lot less cancer, and other diseases.

You can insert what you want about the rise of measles and people becoming more anti-vax and anti-mask, and it's relevant, but the point is that currently things are much harder than they need to be, and that is getting worse.

There are people losing their jobs for ridiculous reasons, then being jerked around about whether that is legal or not and they have some hope.

Even if there were actual cost savings, there is an aftermath economically and emotionally that is widespread and will have an impact.

I personally am exhausted from all the emotional upheaval, and I know I am not the only one. 

As we have less in the way of food safety or EPA oversight or any thing that protects and attempts to give people fair shots, that will increase illness and unrest and difficulty.

That will affect good people. It will affect children. 

I have faith that all of that will be healed, eventually. The wait can be hard.

I also believe that there will be a price to be paid, but that we should think about our place in that.

Right now a lot of Trump voters are suffering, but they had wanted that suffering for other people; they just didn't think it would be them.

Often the corporate havoc that is wreaked is for profit, and I know why the people profiting directly don't care, but are we too accepting of it? Well, that's just good business, right?

I wrote a letter to Amazon letting them know that I won't be using them anymore. I had already stopped using them, but I realized they should know why they were losing business. It also reinforced my resolve not to shop there, which may have been important.

There was also this guilt that I hadn't stopped using them a long time ago. Did I use them that much? Could I have saved some of the bookstores that went out of business? Not alone, for sure, but if I had been more conscientious about my shopping and tried to encourage other people to do so as well, could that have made a difference?

This may not feel like very clear communication. Here are a few points that I am getting at...

• These are hard times. Don't blame yourself for feeling that stress.
• Also do not take that stress too personally; that is more likely to hurt than help.
• But also, collectively we do have an impact that is often easy to overlook, and that is worth thinking about. 

And hang in there.