Inspiration Beats Opression
Unbearable screaming. Crying like you’ve never cried before, crying like your life is ending in a second and all of a sudden remembering that you have not accomplished anything, have not fought for anyone, or at the very least, have not lived for yourself. Unbearable crying, nothing like I have heard before, no one told me a human being was capable of such heart wrenching sounds. Even through three walls separating us, I could feel the pain. With every slam I heard, my friend and I shared a look and kept taking one step closer to their door. Listening silently, and carefully. Someone was doing the yelling, and someone else was doing the crying, the sounds of slamming into something was in between the human noises. The language was foreign. It was late night on a weekend, in a building where no one really asks for trouble.
School, friends and relatives can only teach us so much before you deal with real life situations that don’t have much to do with 2 + 2. What do you do when you are put in an alien situation? A situation you hear of often, but never assume it to come around your life, never assume for a minute to have it three walls away, or seven steps from where your standing. Anyone’s typical response would be to call the cops obviously, as you should. But what do you do until they get there? Also, should you call the cops, or are you overacting? What if it's not your place to call anyone? Just let people figure their problems out.
What if that person had lost a family member from the recent tsunami and was crying and throwing things while the other individual tried to stop it, or at least calm her down? What if she got a letter telling her she was permanently laid off from school, and is crying because of the response she does not want to hear from family back home? What if she found out her significant other had cancer and is going to be very ill in a few months, and that broke her down because she sees no life without her other half? A million IFs popped up my head, maybe calling the police wasn’t the best typical response my head would give me, because in all honesty she could have been crying and screaming for any other reason than the first reason that came to mind. Now is this me sincerely taking this problem rationally, or am I justifying this act of cruelty because my brain does not want to believe that I am living next door to a victim of domestic abuse?
The butter: when a human being is being hurt (micro) as a global society we are all effected (macro). Pulling myself out of the problem because its not mine seemed like a great idea for a split second. If a problem doesn’t affect me, then I sure as hell won’t involve myself in it; homeless people are not my problem, mental illness is not my problem, global warming is not my problem, rape is not my problem. But it is my neighbor’s problem this week, could have been my sister’s problem two years ago, perhaps my daughter’s problem in twenty years, or my own problem tomorrow. I see myself wanting to change the world, but keeping quiet about certain things does not erase them. The rug we brush our taboo issues under will soon over flow of dust, and the homes we live in are not so clean anymore.
School, friends and relatives can only teach us so much before you deal with real life situations that don’t have much to do with 2 + 2. What do you do when you are put in an alien situation? A situation you hear of often, but never assume it to come around your life, never assume for a minute to have it three walls away, or seven steps from where your standing. Anyone’s typical response would be to call the cops obviously, as you should. But what do you do until they get there? Also, should you call the cops, or are you overacting? What if it's not your place to call anyone? Just let people figure their problems out.
What if that person had lost a family member from the recent tsunami and was crying and throwing things while the other individual tried to stop it, or at least calm her down? What if she got a letter telling her she was permanently laid off from school, and is crying because of the response she does not want to hear from family back home? What if she found out her significant other had cancer and is going to be very ill in a few months, and that broke her down because she sees no life without her other half? A million IFs popped up my head, maybe calling the police wasn’t the best typical response my head would give me, because in all honesty she could have been crying and screaming for any other reason than the first reason that came to mind. Now is this me sincerely taking this problem rationally, or am I justifying this act of cruelty because my brain does not want to believe that I am living next door to a victim of domestic abuse?
The butter: when a human being is being hurt (micro) as a global society we are all effected (macro). Pulling myself out of the problem because its not mine seemed like a great idea for a split second. If a problem doesn’t affect me, then I sure as hell won’t involve myself in it; homeless people are not my problem, mental illness is not my problem, global warming is not my problem, rape is not my problem. But it is my neighbor’s problem this week, could have been my sister’s problem two years ago, perhaps my daughter’s problem in twenty years, or my own problem tomorrow. I see myself wanting to change the world, but keeping quiet about certain things does not erase them. The rug we brush our taboo issues under will soon over flow of dust, and the homes we live in are not so clean anymore.
Comments