Taking A Moment To Be A Better Flashlight

I have been less personal here on the Stoop for a while. I had life happen. It is still happening. I can tell those of you that have more of it to live than I've got left is that you do the best you can and keep moving forward. Or rest when necessary. But the forward thing, yeah direction wise that is the way to go. Forward isn't always easy.

I don't know if you did this but when I was a kid I wanted to know how the world got so messed up. As a teen that shifted into being able to see some of the messed-uppers in action and figured they would die off so that the rest of us that had a clue could get to work.

What I did not count on was that it would be so easy for good people to do nothing. To be distracted by survival, responsibilities, trivia, and 50 million other legitimate reasons for shutting off the world and looking for peace. Yet sanctuary ok to visit, even on a daily basis but at some point you have to be a part of the world and the communities you are connected to.

This is not easy. This is also not what I want all of the time. Sanctuary, good. World? It depends.

I was talking to my friend who is a good man. I don't tell him that often enough. Yeah, anyway we were talking and I was telling him that I want to just find a deep cave.

He said "I did not want to do that."

I said, "Yes I do, I wouldn't have said it if I didn't mean it. I don't understand the tolerance for violence, for stupidity being hailed as a badge of honor. I don't understand socialism used as a pejorative when almost everything that happens in this country is connected to another person, a community of people, a frigging Union in fact and health care is considered an enemy of capitalism. This is not the change I signed on for; there is so many positive things that can be done but if you have to fight this hard what is the point?"

To paraphrase: "The point is that change is disruptive. People don't like disruptions for the unknown. Some would rather die than step forward if moving forward meant stepping into the unknown. You have a tendency to step into the unknown, into the possible. Sometimes you get hurt and sometimes you come back sharing the future. "

"I can't help that, it is what I do. I accept that about me."

"Yeah, and that is a good thing. Except when you get angry and impatient with others who are afraid of taking a single step. You don't need a cave. You need a better flashlight."

Grumble, grumble (Damn, he's right.) grumble.

Illumination. That is why a lot of us write, blog, video and record. We want to illuminate some aspect of our world. Of our lives. Our interests. We connect with each other and we step into new flows of energy and points of view.

So I am going to try to be a better flashlight. How do I do that?

Yes, I need work on the grammar/spelling thing. Lawd, I know. Need also to find better ways to explain things to fearful people. I can't do anything for the willfully stupid. I have accepted that for the time being.

I know that I need to put in my two cents about health care but just waiting for a sign on how to do that. Don't want to add to the noise, need facts and substance. I don't know. I just know we can't leave this to Congress.

Health care ain't political with me, it is damned personal.

When I can ride the bus and hear a homeless person who is clearly physically hurt say that they would die than step foot in a county hospital it is bad. Because homeless or not you know there would be a 24 to 36 hour wait for service.

Neighborhood clinic will not see you without an appointment but they will refer you to the county hospital. Area hospitals will not see you unless it is life threatening and they only patch you up to get you out of the door ASAP.

People can't afford the doctor or the Nurse Practitioner in the Drug store because you are not going to be paid for another week and a half and there is the rent, mortgage, kids, food, phone, gas, electric, utilities waiting for your attention.

So yeah, there is a problem here. There are solutions. We can do this. I'll put a hold on my cave reservation but folks need to get to stepping.