A Crumbled World

What is happening to the world?  This place I once thought was full of nothing but green grass, playtime with friends, and loving adults.

It's gone.  It's transformed. Into a place where the debt crisis is argued day and night, where bombings occur in countries that cannot defend themselves, where the rich are corrupt and the poor are suffering.*   Where war is common, where innocent people are murdered for seemingly justified reasons but in reality, there is no justified reason to take an innocent life.

This place I once thought was caring and safe.  Where even my own life was filled with nothing but joy and love.  With ice cream cones and goodnight kisses.  It's gone.

People change.  Competition wins.  The desire to be on top, to be the best, to hold all the power.  And it affects the rest of us.  Those of us who solely want to be happy day-by-day.  To love.  To revel in the joy that comes when surrounded by friends and family.  We struggle.

Because the world has transformed.  Gone are the days when you love your neighbor as yourself.  Gone are the days when we rely on the spirit and meaning of teachings, and not on the words themselves.  Gone are the days when we enjoin justice and forbid evil.

It's hard to love in a world such as this.  To love all, even those committing these atrocities against humanity.  But love is what this world needs, desperately.  Love, and empathy, and compassion.

Why is it not seen that we are all human beings.  We live with the same motivations, fears, and joys.  We just handle them differently.  I am no exception; I am no saint.  I should love this world I'm living in, for everything it is, and try to spread joy and happiness to everyone I meet.

And, upon reflection, I do love this world.  Do I wish some things were different?  Yes.  But I also believe that we, as humankind, are learning each and every day how to handle this world we're living in.  It gives me hope.

I still can't help, though, but to mourn the days of blissful ignorance I was in as a child.  Where love and compassion surrounded you everywhere.  Those days of butterflies, ice-creams, and green grass.



*Aside:  I know these are extremes - that not all rich are corrupt - but it seems to be the common trend.