Tight Rope

Our culture has made life a balancing act. In the eyes of society we need to: get an education, get out of debt, own a home, have a fancy car, have the newest phone, have a high paying career, and rear a family. Depending on where in the country you live by the time you achieve all of this is what determines if you are a failure or success.

So let's look at things from a different perspective.

We are all failures. We are going through resources faster than we can make them. We are living of of "food-like" products instead of food. We are sitting in cubicles when in reality we are animals just like every other living organism. Imagine how healthy a _insert favorite animal here__ would be if they sat behind a computer screen for eight hours a day instead of outside moving around. It's no wonder we're obese. It's no wonder we're not happy. We are not anywhere near as Japan, working themselves to death. But are we not on our way there? Is competition not driving us in an unhealthy direction for our species? Instead of trying to help others and ourselves live healthy, fulfilling lives, our society wants us to be dependent on the drug administration. Treating our symptoms instead of the simple solution to our problems... eating real food, and treating ourselves like the animals that we are. We need walks, fresh air, a proper diet for longevity. We do not need to be constantly connected with everyone we've met since we opened a facebook account, we do not need to watch 30 minutes + of television daily. We do not need to take work home to get "ahead" when we're actually severing good relationships to the people in our lives.

We are all successes. We have evolved into amazing creatures which massive potential to create a better world for our own species and for every other species we share this world with. We have different cultures to learn from to make these advances possibly. We have such capacity to really improve the lives of any creature we come into contact with if we could put greed aside and focus on the fact that we are all one.

So what is more important? Being happy? Making others happy? Truly living? Or "living" for others? You decide.

Fake it.

After a late evening my eyes were having trouble opening so the decision to stop by the gas station for some caffeine was made. At the gas station I quickly grabbed the drink of choice and went to stand in the surprisingly long line. There were two cashiers but only one was actually going through customers at a normal pace. The other one was held up by one customer. 

A fluffy woman with long silver hair tied back in a pony tail. She was leaning over the counter and speaking with the one. Her facial features were like a wrinkled version of my mom's. She reminded me of her for a few different reasons; because of her hair--keeping it long  is somewhat uncommon in woman of a certain age around here, her conversation--you could tell how lonely she was, and her face--the resemblance was uncanny. 

It made me feel guilty and sad. I don't know where to draw the line with my mom's and my life. I don't know how to get all the things I need to done and still spend enough time with her to make her feel appreciated and dismiss her loneliness. It's hard enough to balance work, school, and a social life. I spend time with family weekly, but it's not enough to dismiss her loneliness, it's easy to see. 

So how does everyone else seem so functional? How does everyone seem to find a healthy balance and make everyone feel loved? Or is it this hard for everyone and they all just paste a on a happy face and go about their days pretending everything is okay? Painting a mirage in the line of sight for all to fall prey too. Using that whole "fake it till you make it deal" that may as well be "lie to yourself, everyone else will believe it and eventually you will too." 

The Magnet

Radiating your happiness isn't something you have to try to accomplish if you truly are happy. It's an attractive, a peaceful, and a reassuring quality. It kindly demands respect and reflects with it confidence. When you are focusing on abolishing suffering instead of looking a part, or another superficial goal it pulls people in. They may not understand why but it is because they are searching for that inner peace through paths the media, society, and religion have told them it is possible. It may be horrifyingly sad to see others struggle through these trivial hardships, but all that can be done is to be an example. It makes time better spent, days more rewarding,  life becomes well-lived.

first day

I love how much not caring changes everything. In school in the past I have been the one who is quiet and never asks questions, answers them when called on, and if I don't understand something I wait till the rest of the class is doing something and I can talk to the teacher one on one. Today.... was a different story.
I cracked a joke, answered questions without being forced too, and voiced opinions when appropriate. I thoroughly enjoyed it, understood and retained the material better and ended up staying after class talking with the professor and a couple students. SUCH a different and AWESOME experience. Participating, actually participating, changes learning sooo much. I'm actually excited for the term, and know that if I keep this up I will learn a lot more and appreciate the subject/material more than I have in the past.

contact

Seemingly unlimited space above, making way through bodies, the smell of sweat so strong you can almost taste it. Passing eyes all facing the south. Most you can tell aren't hearing the vibrations coming from the speakers their eyes are void of thoughts, so strung out on various designer drugs, others who can barely stand because alcohol has started to limit the control they have over their own bodies. Walking in beat with the heavy bass the crowd lessens in density with every few steps. And finally air, cooler air finally relieves the damp skin. Inhaling air void of the salty taste of sweat. Steps quicken on the path that leads to the double doors that grant absolute freedom from this haze of adolescent escape. Palms press gently against the door and a quick glance back into the faceless crowd, that finds its escape in this meaningless way, gets rid of any doubts about the decision that's been made. With a hard shove the brisk air of the evening almost knocks you back, the moon and stars light the way, with the pounding of the bass matching the rhythm of the heart. The pace quickens as you realize contact has left you in the state of the rest of the mass. This unwelcome haze has left you with limited options. Going back in, you will succumb to the numbness of your peers. Leaving in this state could get you behind some thick vertical bars, in a crumpled heap of metal, or if the decline of mental awareness continues.......

sharks

Getting the courage to "open the wound" and then getting deserted. Though it was not the fault of the deserter, family emergencies happen. It will add time to the recovery process; because the trust that was initially there has now been tampered with. Bringing all the raw emotions, that have been placed in a deep dark hiding spot, back to the very front of the mind. Just to disappear and not help through or give things to consider when thinking about them. Like leaving someone in the middle of a pool of sharks and then throwing in the bloody fish. How is one expected to come through without some help? The emotions were put away in a dark far away place because they are too hard to face, too much to handle. The books that were supposed to help have been read and they just add more sharks to the pool. They helped realizations come forth but knowing the problems just adds more hurt, how do I get to the side safely and pull myself out?

imminence.

If death was something you knew you would face in the near future, let's say 2 weeks, what would your attitude be? Would it be that of rejection and resentment? Or would you want to ask all the questions you had, make amends, and try to experience the things you had wished to experience before your last breath? How would you make your death personally meaningful?

_______________________________________________

The following is a story about Old Sarah(*):

     "By far the most dramatic instance of timing and planning was the dying of Old Sarah. About two weeks before her death I received a radio message from Old Sarah summoning me to Arctic Village on a specific day. Nothing like this had happened to me before but I can remember thinking "she intends to die on that day." Dutifully I gathered three of her family in Fort Yukon and flew them to Arctic Village on the day designated. I was right about her intentions but wrong about the date. She had a son in another village and wished me to bring him to Arctic Village. She allowed enough time for me to bring in the last person. It was quite a company of people as was fitting for the undisputed matriarch of both the family and the community.
     "During the morning of the next day she prayed for all the members of her family. At noon we had a great celebration of the Eucharist in a her cabin complete with all the hymns and prayers. Old Sarah loved every minute of it, joined in the prayers and the singing and was quite bright throughout the service. Then we all left and at six in the evening she died. For the next two days the entire village turned out on the business of Sarah's funeral. Some of the women prepared her body and completely cleaned her cabin while other cooked vast quantities of food, much of which Sarah had bought for the occasion, for the workers. The mission house was turned into a carpentry shop for making the coffin and teams of men took turns picking and shoveling a grave in the frozen ground. All the village packed into the church for the service and accompanied the coffin to the graveyard, singing hymns while the grave was filled in with dirt and placing hand-made crepe paper flowers on the mound before the final blessing. Then there was a great feast for all the village. The burial customs were similar to these in all the villages but never before or since in my experience were they planned and shared so much by the one who died. Old Sarah's dying was a priceless gift to all of us."

___________________________________________________

     This death was truly a celebration of life, a coming to terms with mortality, and a gathering of people who had known her. When thinking about the services provided to the individuals in our lives that have past what is similar? What is different? Do we let our loved ones die in familiar surroundings with familiar faces? Or do we send them to the sterile machine infested hospital room where they are monitored by strangers with the titles of nurses and doctors? Trying to prolong the inevitable in a lonely unfamiliar space. What favors are we doing them if they are in this lonely environment? A couple extra hours? Days? Would it not be better to let them come to terms with their death in a place they've always known? With the people they love?

     I want responses. What would you want to accomplish? How would you feel? What would your immediate response be? Just think for a few minutes (or longer if you'd like) about all of this.


*This story is an excerpt from: Dying Among Alaskan Indians: A Matter of Choice by Murray L. Trelease from Death The Final Stage of Growth by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

professionalism vs compassion

Hospitals are a place where the sick go to heal, the terminally ill go to die, and the healthy go for check ups, shots, and to visit loved ones. The employees of the hospital have a line to walk. Procedure-oriented patient care or patient-oriented procedures (*Ross). They have to decide whether the procedures or the patients are more important. In my experience, a great number of physicians have lost track of the reason behind medical care and are focused on getting the paperwork done, following procedures, and getting in their hours. Visiting the emergency room more than the average person in the past couple years I got to experience how a lot of different doctors treat patients. Especially young ones with tattoos. They either treated you like a problem to solve, not a person to help. Or like a junkie trying to get a fix. What is going on in our society? I thought medicine was about helping people, about taking away pain, and figuring out a way to keep the healthy healthy and get the sick back to being healthy. It is a shame that the emergency room physicians see so many junkies that they can't differentiate between the truly ill and those out for a fix. We have such a messed up system and it's takes away from the patient-physician relationship. It makes physicians make bad calls because they're trying harder to save their asses than to make sure the patient is getting the proper care, proper tests done, and doing what they went to medical school to do someday. It is a hard line to walk... compassion and professionalism, but our society is making it more difficult than it needs to be.

*DEATH The Final Stage of Growth, by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross.

final bow

Reading through DEATH The Final Stage of Growth by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross and listening to Summerland by Lunatic Soul caused, in a beautiful way, a moment of clarity, realization, awareness, and awe. It was a beautiful experience.

Our bodies are finite (Ross). We are all going to die, but we don't have to look at it as a negative thing. We can come to terms with the reality, and beauty of death. We can come to the realization that it is our "big moment" (summerland). We are taking our final bow in this life, letting loved ones reminisce over the times shared both good and bad. Death is beautiful.

sweet old men

A sweet old man of 80-something talking to me over the phone and discussing every answer he gave with his wife. Another man in the same age range who said I have a lovely voice. Both made my eyes well up with tears. It's so bitter sweet. These individuals at the brink of the end of what we know in this consciousness. One so intertwined with the love of his life. The other handing out compliments to nervous young girls over the phone. They may have lived similar lives, or their lives may have only resembled each other in the most basic of senses. It's crazy how much we all have in common, how much of the same things we all go through, we all experience. How many of our "original" thoughts have been thought by so many others. At the same time though, it's crazy to be in a room full of people and feel like the only thing you have in common with any of them is humanity. It's like like a rope, and we're all strands in it. We all follow the same pattern but we get there with different kinks, some of the us live longer, some of us are discolored. Another crazy thing is how different experiences bring us to the same conclusions about beliefs, lifestyles, etc. How some embrace and some live in fear. It all seems so sad though, when you speak to a sweet old man over the phone. Thinking I wonder if his family appreciates him, really knows him, takes the time to listen to his life stories, reminds him that they love him, makes him feel important. I hope my grandparents know I love them. I know so little about their lives before I became a part of them. I really should speak to them more and do more thoughtful things for them. We can get so caught up in our own lives, or in helping people in other countries, or even volunteering down the road. We can forget about the ones that need and appreciate our love, concern, and service the most. The easiest way to develop love and nurture it is to serve and it's sad that the tendency is to neglect the ones in our lives who deserve, need (or both) it most. Here's hoping this gets at least one person to show their appreciation for the ones in their lives that need or deserve it most.