A woman I barely knew passed away earlier this week. I only met her once, but I know a lot about her through my neighbor, whom she knew through a very convoluted relationship. Even though I only knew of her, I have been thinking about her and the family she leaves behind all week long. She was a good person, but had a very hard life and died young (46) leaving behind three teenagers, ages 12 and 13 (twins and one son). Their father is in jail. Mostly I have been thinking about her children and the life they are going to lead. I sincerely hope they turn out okay. They seem like good kids, but unfortunately I don't think they have very many adults who are really concerned for their well-being. I doubt their mother had very many people in her childhood to help her along and give her encouragement. Thus continues the cycle.
Most people think you get one shot at life and that's it. Some religions believe in reincarnation, but some do not. This is it as far as quite a few people are concerned. I have a really hard time accepting that idea, because so many people's lives just really aren't all that great. Some people may only know happiness once or not even at all in a lifetime. Others constantly live in a state of war and violence, or famine, or disease.
This brings me to the idea of God. I am not really sure what my views on the topic are. I think I have come to the conclusion that there may be a higher intelligence out there, but he or she seems to take a laissez-faire type of approach to us earthlings. I just cannot accept the fact that a loving God could allow such inequality among humankind. If he can, then I have a serious bone to pick with him.
I was taught that all people are born with the power to make their own choices, with something called free-agency. But I don't think very many people have the luxury of such choices. Consider a child raised in an inner city. The chances of that child getting into drugs, gangs, and dropping out of high school are pretty high. You could argue that it is still a choice, but I don't think it is much of a choice if you are raised to see illegal drugs as a normal way of making money and joining a gang a necessary way to survive. Or consider the family I was talking about earlier. How many choices did the mother really have in her life? Probably not very many that she could see or thought she was capable.
We like to boast that America is the land of opportunity, but I only see opportunities for those who are born into or above the middle class, or who have an extraordinary amount of drive, intelligence, and luck. The mediocre do not get anywhere. If they did, who would perform the menial labor the extraordinary citizens eschew?
People get pigeon-holed at a very young age. I saw this all the time when I worked in daycares. I hated that I thought this, but I could pretty much tell which children were going to succeed, and which ones were going to be arrested, on drugs, or pregnant before 17. It didn't have to do with temperament, it had to do with parenting, economic status, and how other people perceived them. Some kids were perhaps a little neglected, and tended to act up a bit. These children were quickly labelled as 'trouble-makers' by the teachers, a label that would of course follow them through different teachers as well. Other children weren't quite as cute, or cuddly, or bright as some others. They also tended to slip through the cracks. Unless something changes for these kids they will grow up with very low expectations of themselves and their abilities. They will continue to make bad choices, because they think those are the only choices they are capable of making. It makes my heart hurt just thinking about it.
I guess I am really a socialist at heart. Socialism has gotten a bad rap in the U.S. but its really not such a bad thing, when not taken to the extreme. I think everyone, regardless of ability should have the right to a successful, happy life. We castigate certain countries for having caste systems, but we have a caste system of our own here. Perhaps it is not legally in place, but it is in place in the minds of people very rigidly.
I want life to be fair. Maybe it is harder for me to enjoy my happiness knowing that there is suffering in the world. Knowing how fortunate I am doesn't necessarily make me grateful, it more often makes me mad that others will never know the kind of life I am living. And people, let me tell you, my life isn't all that great when compared to some others, but I am pretty darned happy with it. Lately I have really begun to appreciate the idea of reincarnation. I like to think that perhaps if someone gets the short end of the stick this time around, there is always next time.
I sit and look out upon all the sorrows of the world, and upon all
oppression and shame,
I hear secret convulsive sobs from young men at anguish with
themselves, remorseful after deeds done,
I see in low life the mother misused by her children, dying,
neglected, gaunt, desperate,
I see the wife misused by her husband, I see the treacherous seducer
of young women,
I mark the ranklings of jealousy and unrequited love attempted to be
hid, I see these sights on the earth,
I see the workings of battle, pestilence, tyranny, I see martyrs and prisoners,
I observe a famine at sea, I observe the sailors casting lots who
shall be kill'd to preserve the lives of the rest,
I observe the slights and degradations cast by arrogant persons upon
laborers, the poor, and upon negroes, and the like;
All these-all the meanness and agony without end I sitting look out upon,
See, hear, and am silent.
Walt Whitman
2 comments:
Very well written article.
When I was doing my Masters, my specialization was Political Thought and one of the aspects, I studied was socialism and your remark about it is very astute.
If you haven't read about it, you should read about Fabian Socialism- a form of social democracy tht is gradualist and reformist. A British intellectual movt which attracted some of the intellectual giants like Bernard Shaw and India's first Prime Minister Nehru...
You might find the role of reincarnation in my faith in Hinduism interesting but it may not be quite on the lines most people generally think of it...
I will definitely have to check out the idea of Fabian Socialism. I have also had an increasing interest in Asian philosophies and religions, namely Buddhism and Hinduism. I should probably also look into those further.
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