Who Cares - What Matters
We hamster around
from one destination
to multiple journeys
making sure our
ever creaky wheel
spins
s p i n s
s p i n s
Going very quickly
N O W H E R E
only to ferret out
The Greatest Discovery
that we Gerbils
RUN THE WHEEL
only to unveil
THE GREATER DISCOVERY
that the Wheel stops
when the Hamster does
Now that’s a pretty loaded question, isn’t it?
I usually got asked that question as a kid when I did something my parents didn’t overly appreciate. . .
Maybe I talked back
Maybe I gave my unauthorized opinion
Maybe it’s what I didn’t say when I should have said something
Maybe my MAYBE is severely understated. . .
I may not be a whole lot more mature
or much more GROWN UP
but I have gotten a little wiser with the years. . .
SO. . .
ANSWER THE QUESTION:
WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?
Psssssssssssssssssst of the Day:
IT HAS MULTIPLE ANSWERS
(yes, there’s more than one)
W H E N
WERE
YOU
AT
YOUR ABSOLUTE BEST?
JAMIE DUCHARME of TIME MAGAZINE has an idea according to some of her extensive research:
In today’s youth-obsessed culture, getting older is often seen as something to fear. But a new study says at least one thing gets better with age: self-esteem.
Age 60 seems to be best for self-esteem, according to a paper published recently in the journal Psychological Bulletin — and those positive feelings may stay at their peak for an entire decade.
“Midlife is, for many adults, a time of highly stable life circumstances in domains such as relationships and work. Moreover, during middle adulthood, most individuals further invest in the social roles they hold, which might promote their self-esteem,” study co-author Ulrich Orth, a professor of psychology at the University of Bern in Switzerland, said in an email to TIME. “For example, people take on managerial roles at work, maintain a satisfying relationship with their spouse or partner, and help their children to become responsible and independent adults.”
The researchers based their analysis on 191 research articles about self-esteem, which included data from almost 165,000 people. They set out to present the most comprehensive look yet at how self-esteem changes with age, examining a number of different demographics and age groups.
Self-esteem first begins to rise between ages 4 and 11, as children develop socially and cognitively and gain some sense of independence. Levels then seem to plateau — but not decline — as the teenage years begin from ages 11 to 15, the data show.
That’s somewhat surprising, given that many people — scientists and otherwise — assume that self-esteem takes a hit during the traditionally awkward early teenage years, “possibly because of pubertal changes and increased emphasis on social comparison at school,” Orth says. “However, our findings show that this is not the case.”
Instead, self-esteem appears to hold steady until mid-adolescence. After that lull, Orth says, self-esteem seems to increase substantially until age 30, then more gradually throughout middle adulthood, before peaking around age 60 and remaining stable until age 70.
After this period, however, Orth’s data show that many adults experience a decline in self-esteem, beginning modestly around 70 and becoming more significant around age 90.
“Old age frequently involves loss of social roles as a result of retirement, the empty nest, and, possibly, widowhood, all of which are factors that may threaten self-esteem,” Orth explains. “In addition, aging often leads to negative changes in other possible sources of self-esteem, such as socioeconomic status, cognitive abilities and health.”
The suggestion that these factors don’t seem to meaningfully converge until around age 90, however, should be encouraging.
“Many people,” Orth says, “are able to maintain a relatively high level of self-esteem even during old age.”
SO. . .
Just WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?
Maybe the more important question:
WHO ARE YOU CONTINUING TO BECOME ?
(are you satisfied)
It’s the only research that’ll ever be
r e l e v a n t
When the Circus comes to town
Don’t Go
When the Circus comes to town
Don’t advertise
When the Circus comes to town
Don’t buy or sell tickets
When the Circus comes to town
Don’t village up family and friends
to come along
When the Circus comes to town
Get your cotton candy
and unnecessary lighted plastic objects
somewhere else
When the Circus comes to town
Go to a movie
Read a book
Take in a concert
Go for a walk
(the other way)
When the Circus comes to town
There’ll be nothing you haven’t already
seen
heard
done or
been
including entertaining
the doesn’t exist
E L E P H A N T
in the room
When the Circus comes to town
G O
to another city
borough
state
country
continent
galaxy
universe
G O
or just meet me and the other
familiar faces
in the front row
or any one of the
THREE RINGS
When the Circus comes to town
know it’s never really gone
What’s worse. . .
That THEY DO
or that THEY DON’T. . .
THINK ABOUT YOU
We all,
no matter what we say
C A R E
(even in small ways)
What OTHERS
think about us
But here’s the
data-based
S C I E N T I F I C
p r o o f:
Nobody is thinking that much about me (or you)
Because we mostly think about ourselves. . .
Don’t believe it? Do you still think the people around you are spending a lot of time thinking about everything you do and say? Science disagrees.
There’s actually scientific evidence that we mostly think about ourselves.
Back in 1997, Dunbar, Marriott et al studied the topic and content of human conversations. They found that 78% of conversations involved talking about ourselves and our perceptions of the world. As they said in the study, the number one function of conversation in the social domain is that:
it allows the speaker to convey to other individuals a lot of information about him/herself as a person.
So the first step was understanding that people mostly talk about themselves.
In 2013, Tamir and Mitchell from Harvard showed that most people do something called “anchoring.” It is a kind of cognitive bias where:
[people] invoke their own experiences as a guide for inferring the experiences of another person.
As an example, you might feel uncomfortable in crowds. So when someone describes a big party they attended, you assume they were describing a negative experience. Even if they, personally, love big parties.
More recently (2018), Meyer and Lieberman proposed a theory about why people are always thinking about themselves. There is a certain area of the brain (MPFC/DA 10) that is sort of the “default network” area. It gets activated when the brain is at rest and not engaged in external demands. Their imaging work confirmed that it is also the same area that lights up when we think about ourselves.
In other words, our brain’s default is to think about ourselves.
So the research supports this truth. We talk about ourselves more than anything else. We use our own experiences to make assumptions about other people. And our brain is wired to think about ourselves when it’s not engaged in other external demands.
The research is pretty clear. We’re mostly thinking about ourselves.
Let’s reframe our negative thoughts and assumptions about ourselves for a moment.
When I am worried that someone thinks I’m too intense. Or that I’m not doing a good job at a presentation at work. Who is actually thinking that?
Me. I’m thinking about myself and believing those thoughts. But are other people judging me in the same way?
The biggest truth is that we have no idea what other people are thinking and we never will.
But the most likely scenario is that the people around me are wondering what I think about them. Or something else related to themselves. And I’m the only one thinking all those negative thoughts about myself. Because I’m only a blip on the radar of the thoughts of anyone else.
The truth about what people think about us goes something like the quote from Bette Midler in Beaches. Yes, I know, but the quote is good:
Enough about me, let’s talk about you. What do you think of me?
All this isn’t to say that people will never judge you, say mean things to you, or think negative thoughts about you. That isn’t true. I mean, we’ve all been on the internet.
But my perspective on these things is that often, these judgements aren’t actually about us. At least not only about us.
Again, the research from the Tamir & Mitchell paper (and others) says that people use their own thoughts and experiences as an “anchor” for their assumptions about other people.
What I’ve seen is that people are often the harshest and most judgmental about parts of other people that they are insecure about in themselves.
So the next time someone calls you something mean or makes a judgement about you and how you live your life. Instead of internalizing it and making it mean something about you. Ask yourself, what does it mean about them? What negative thoughts do they have about themselves that “anchor” their belief about you?
When you realize that most people’s thoughts are about themselves. When you actually internalize this concept, the freedom is incredible.
It means, I can do my work presentation and believe whatever I want about how I did.
It means, I can wear whatever I want and accept that I like the outfit.
The possibilities are endless.
This shift might not happen overnight. And it won’t exist all the time. Nothing is perfect, absolute, or black and white.
But the next time you find yourself feeling completely judged. The next time you are overcome with the belief that other people are thinking mean, terrible, horrible thoughts about you.
Remember, you have no idea what they’re actually thinking. But it’s unlikely to be about you. And more likely to be about themselves.
So you’re free to think anything you want, good or bad. And remove the inner monologue from your mind and return to the present moment.
What a relief.
(ME–trying to show the world that I’m color blind)
Kind of makes you wonder, huh. . .
D E A T H
Billy Collins has long been one of my favorite contemporary poets and he ponders
D E A T H
this way in his poem entitled,
M Y N U M B E R
Is Death miles away from this house,
reaching for a window in Cinncinati
or breathing down the neck of a lost hiker
in British Columbia?
Is he too busy making arrangements,
tampering with air brakes,
scattering cancer cells like seeds,
loosening the wooden beams of roller coasters
to bother with my hidden cottage
that visitors find so hard to find?
Or is he stepping from a black car
parked at the dark end of the lane,
shaking open the familiar cloak,
its hood raised like the head of a crow,
and removing the scythe from the trunk?
Did you have any trouble with the directions?
I will ask, as I start talking my way out of this.
I remember at a very young age welcoming d e a t h; walking with it; talking to it; trying to understand what it all meant. I don’t know if I’ve ever come to heads or tails of that but I know doing some 26 funerals a month for the past 10 years has brought me closer to it than I’ve ever had in my entire life. The Buddhist tell us that attachment is the form of all suffering and detachment helps us not suffer as much. I, like Many, am a poor Buddhist. . .
I remember as a five or six year old kid, sitting in the backseat one Friday night as we were making our way to my grandparents, which was more of a weekly event than not. . .I told my parents matter of factly that I hope I would die before them because I would be too sad if they died first; there was a palpable silence I can remember and that nervous look between parents that wasn’t all that secret before they both, in machine gun like fashion began sputtering off all kinds of reasons why that’s “not the way it’s suppose to be.”
There was the death of my grandfather when I was six and then the death of my other grandfather right before my 14th birthday that I believed I was directly responsible and then aunts, uncles, great grandmother and grandmothers and friends in high-school. . .
In a strange way I have learned to not just open the door to death but actually unhinge it. And by just unhinging it, it’s let it come and go in places in my life like a undamable flood waters that seep in spots you didn’t even know exists and before it drys all of the way it leaves an unmistakable odor that never quiet evaporates or gets tamed. . .
I’ve long ago filled out my own DNRCC and written letters to be read ‘at that appropriate time. . .I’ve taped parts of my own Celebration of Life so I can have the “LAST WORD” and intend to attend it if I get a glimpse or a longer than usual ‘heads-up’ that it’s looming before me in my most immediate future;
I’ve even gone further as to actually imagine trying to envision what it would be like to not only lose my parents today, this year, but also losing my sister and brothers to the SHADOW that knows no Light. . .
And yes, I’ve dared hugging the Porcupine-full-barbed-quails-exposed and plunging deep, what it would be like to have Erin, my wife die or any one of my four daughters, my son, my five granddaughters or my
grandson. . .
O U C H
That seems to go little bit further than what we would call
mindfulness. . .
It’s way less than mindlessness, too. . .
Try it go ahead and finish these two sentences:
BEFORE I DIE I WOULD LIKE TO_________________________________
THIS IS WHAT IT WOULD FEEL LIKE IF ONE OF MY LOVED ONE DIED______________
Write out your own Obituary. . .
G O T H E R E
TASTE IT
SNIFF IT
HEAR IT
SEE IT
TOUCH IT
Recall the Laughters. . .all of them
It certainly doesn’t matter if a Tree gets hit by lightning and no longer can bear fruit or sprout leaves compared to if my wife or my children, grandchildren or even my dog Molly died; and it’s even much different then if somebody that is the same age as my wife or my child or my parents die. . .this mindfulness, this acceptance of death; this detachment, is it somehow making me live better; making me love deeper; making me feel and experience more freshly and more deeply?
I’m not sure, but I do know that it’s not any L E S S. And by taking this door and unhinging it, it allows these thoughts, these feelings to sort of come and go without stopping them or judging them or disallowing them. And it is in that very act that it disarms them; Renders them less potent; Makes them, DARE I SAY, more
n e i g h b o r l y. . . ?
It seems, these things are the very seeds once planted we don’t fully ever get to see the plants but know that they grow just the same, and that we are not just tenders of those plants, but also harvesters. It’s growing season always and in ALL PLACES because it never is not THAT season among the Seasons. . .
So exactly what is the Takeaway?
Simply that it is not the same for each person or any person in your way of dealing with anything good and bad; Life or Death is not exactly a RIGHT or WRONG WAY so much as YOUR WAY and most likely it’ll be different than Another’s WAY or Experience. . .
SO EACTLY WHAT IS THE TAKEAWAY?
Teach me your way; let me learn of it and don’t judge me too harshly if I don’t follow it to every detail but take from it lessons that I need to learn at the very moment that I need to learn even again, and let that be enough for the both of us. . .
After all what makes us Caring Catalysts. . .
What makes us Anything
What makes us Everything
is not the fear we are nothing. . .
It’s the Fear that we
WE CEASE TO BE
CARING CATALYSTS
ANYTHING
EVERYTHING
ANYONE’S
EVERYONE’S. . .
Excuse me now. . .
it’s time to do a little dying
and place my head on the pillow;
close my eyes and be asleep
before the next song on my playlist comes up. . .
And even as I die in this way,
A G A I N
(as we each do every night with even a not-so-good-sleep)
I am confident that I will RESURRECT
either to a new day
or to the One that is never ending. . .
For there indeed is a TIME
tick-ticking away. . .
a time for both
and yes. . .
indeed a time for all
I wanted to Disappear
To get so lost
To go so very Un-GPS’s
To go so very off Grid’ed
To go so very Un-mapped
To go so very Un-charted
To go so very Un-detected
To go so very Un-abracadabra
v a n i s h e d
That a happen chance NoBody
Or a wandering SomeBody
Or a searching AnyBody
could ever find me
only to Christopher Columbus
d i s c o v e r
THAT
road is not a
Street
not an
Avenue
not a
Boulevard
not a
2/4/6/8 lane highway
but a Road
always
highly
occupied
Traffic Jammed
DAMN
This is a poem I wrote after a day that felt like a month that can’t be found on a calendar; a day that makes you want to become a skilled magician so you can slight-of-the-hand-blink-of-the-eye-quick-vanish without so much as reflection from a dirty mirror or a wisp of lingering smoke. . .
But here’s the best thing about day’s that feel like months not found on any calendars:
THEY END
and what they take from you
compares not what they gift you:
S T R E N G T H
A detour
sometimes masks itself as a
short cut
and always something more than just another
Way
The detour?
Compassion
The Short cut?
Giving it
The Way?
More often than you have. . .
Talk about a wild ride on a dark night
(on a road that seemingly doesn’t exist)
Giddy Up
Time Magazine’s Markham Heid recently came out with a great article that’s been written in more ways than one in recent years. It’s not just simply about the benefits of a couple of “ho-ho-ho’s” or even some well placed, “Ha-ha-ha’s” But it’s a great affirmation of what you knew, knew that you knew and probably would bet your lift that you knew, but for the life of you didn’t always act like you knew. . .
L A U G H T E R
It may not be the best medicine. But laughter’s great for you, and it may even compare to a proper diet and exercise when it comes to keeping you healthy and disease free.
That’s according to Dr. Lee Berk, an associate professor at Loma Linda University in California who has spent nearly three decades studying the ways the aftershocks of a good laugh ripple through your brain and body.
Berk says your mind, hormone system and immune system are constantly communicating with one another in ways that impact everything from your mood to your ability to fend off sickness and disease. Take grief: “Grief induces stress hormones, which suppress your immune function, which can lead to sickness,” he says. Hardly a week goes by without new research tying stress to another major ailment.
Why mention stress? “Because laughter appears to cause all the reciprocal, or opposite, effects of stress,” Berk explains. He says laughter shuts down the release of stress hormones like cortisol. It also triggers the production of feel-good neurochemicals like dopamine, which have all kinds of calming, anti-anxiety benefits. Think of laughter as the yin to stress’s yang.
Thanks largely to these stress-squashing powers, laughter has been linked to health benefits ranging from lower levels of inflammation to improved blood flow, Berk says. Some research from Western Kentucky University has also tied good chuckle to greater numbers and activity of ‘killer cells,’ which your immune system deploys to attack disease. “Many of these same things also happen when you sleep right, eat right, and exercise,” Berk says, which is why he lumps laughter in with more traditional healthy lifestyle activities.
Berk has even shown that laughter causes a change in the way your brain’s many neurons communicate with one another. Specifically, laughter seems to induce, “gamma” frequencies–the type of brain waves observed among experienced mediators. These gamma waves improve the “synchronization” of your neuronal activity, which bolsters recall and memory, Berk says.
How does laughter accomplish all this? That’s where things get murky, says Dr Robert Provine, a neuroscientist at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and author of Curious Behavior: Yawning, Laughing, Hiccuping, and Beyond
Provide calls himself a “reserved optimist” when it comes to laughter’s health-bolstering properties. “One of the challenges of studying laughter is that there are so many things that trigger it,” Provine explains. For example, you’re 30 times more likely to laugh around other people than when you are by yourself, he says. Social relationships and companionship have been tied to numerous health benefits. And so the social component of laughter may play a big part in its healthful attributes, Provine adds.
Here’s why that matters: If you’re going to tell people they should laugh to improve their health, there may be a big difference between guffawing on your own without provocation, watching a funny YouTube clip or meeting up with friends who make you laugh, Provine says.
“That doesn’t mean the benefits weren’t real,” he adds. “But it may not be accurate to credit laughter alone with all of these superpowers.”he says.
But even for the researchers like Provine who aren’t ready–at least not yet–to coronate laughter as a panacea, he doesn’t dispute the benefits associated with hearty har har. He only questions science’s current understanding of the underlying mechanisms.
“When we laugh, we’re in a happy place,” he says. “That’s always a good thing.”
A couple of years ago I attended The Worldwide Laughter Tour workshop and actually became a Certified Laugh Leader under the direction of Dr. Steve Wilson, a true JOYOLOGIST. I think that was one single event that SHOWED me the great benefits of Laughter
EVEN WHEN IT’S FAKE
Because what I find humorous or absolutely funny
YOU MIGHT NOT
but you still get the benefits when you
FAKE LAUGH
for even up to 60-95 seconds
which is why we learned and taught
LAUGH EXERCISES
Since that time
I’ve taught and led several
LAUGH SESSIONS. . .
WHO KNEW. . .
The World can change
ONE LAUGH
ONE GIGGLE
ONE HAAAAAA
ONE SMILE
at at time. . .
and it can begin
n o w
with you
A great Caring Catalyst
is a
LAUGHING
HAPPY
Caring Catalyst
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next1 of 10
You Asked: Are Cleanses Healthy? Potions that claim to clear your body of toxins might sound alluring, but do they deliver? Illustration by Peter Oumanski for TIME
Thanks largely to these stress-quashing powers, laughter has been linked to health benefits ranging from lower levels of inflammation to improved blood flow, Berk says. Some research from Western Kentucky University has also tied a good chuckle to greater numbers and activity of “killer cells,” which your immune system deploys to attack disease. “Many of these same things also happen when you sleep right, eat right, and exercise,” Berk says, which is why he lumps laughter in with more traditional healthy lifestyle activities.
Berk has even shown that laughter causes a change in the way your brain’s many neurons communicate with one another. Specifically, laughter seems to induce “gamma” frequencies—the type of brain waves observed among experienced meditators. These gamma waves improve the “synchronization” of your neuronal activity, which bolsters recall and memory, Berk says.
How does laughter accomplish all this? That’s where things get murky, says Dr. Robert Provine, a neuroscientist at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and author of Curious Behavior: Yawning, Laughing, Hiccupping, and Beyond.
Provine calls himself a “reserved optimist” when it comes to laughter’s health-bolstering properties. “One of the challenges of studying laughter is that there are so many things that trigger it,” Provine explains. For example, you’re 30 times more likely to laugh around other people than when you are by yourself, he says. Social relationships and companionship have been tied to numerous health benefits. And so the social component of laughter may play a big part in its healthful attributes, Provine adds.
Here’s why that matters: If you’re going to tell people they should laugh to improve their health, there may be a big difference between guffawing on your own without provocation, watching a funny YouTube clip or meeting up with friends who make you laugh, Provine says.
“That doesn’t mean the benefits aren’t real,” he adds. “But it may not be accurate to credit laughter alone with all these superpowers.”
But even for researchers like Provine who aren’t ready—at least not yet—to coronate laughter as a panacea, he doesn’t dispute the benefits associated with a hearty har har. He only questions science’s current understanding of the underlying mechanisms.
“When we laugh, we’re in a happy place,” he says. “That’s always a good thing.”
Sometimes reaching out
and just holding hands
is a connection that your
H E A R T
will require that you do often. . .
In fact,
YOUR HEART
won’t be the same
E V E R
unless it’s connected
hand to hand
I saw her in the hallway when I walked into the facility
and she was talking on the phone
but it looked like she was talking to herself. . .
Moments later I saw her at the vending machine
OFF OF THE PHONE. . .
she was buying a bag of salted nuts
and was wheeling around her own oxygen tank
and it was a simple question I asked:
“How are you?”
with a most significant answer:
“YOU CAN’T BEAT A MOUNTAIN!”
Talk about your
B A M
of the Day
When people have asked me
since 1994
“HOW CAN YOU DO THIS WORK OF HOSPICE with all of the Death and Dying?”
My stock answer is anything but
I N S T O C K:
“Everyday I don’t so much serve the dying as much as I companion the Living,”
. . .the MOUNTAIN-CONQUERING-STORM-WALKING-FIRE-EATING-SUNSHINE-SHINING-BRIGHTER-RAYS-EVER-PRODUCING-LIVING
The Truth:
I’m still one of the most selfish people I’ve ever known
and I’m not ashamed to admit that by being a
Caring Catalyst
and showing up everyday
if to do nothing more than just
J O I N I N G H A N D S
I become more completed
than any box of jumbled puzzle pieces
could ever become
and I’m always in search of the next hand. . .
the not-so-much-missing-piece
but the not-yet-found-one. . .
Because you just can’t
BEAT A MOUNTAIN
In fact. . .
Compassion adds to its Peak
HAND AND HAND
D i s c o v e r
and ever
R E D I S C O V E R
Let’s go Climbing
and let’s have our seemingly
L A S T S T E P
be really just another one of our
F I R S T S
in the many
of more to come
In 1996 there was a study done in the United States (exploring belonging and social connection) where the researchers asked, “HOW MANY PEOPLE DO YOU FEEL CLOSE TO…CLOSE ENOUGH THAT YOU WOULD SHARE YOUR PERSONAL PROBLEMS?” The Answer was 4. The exact same study was done just a mere eight years later in 2004. THE ANSWER WAS: 1
25% answered 0 which means that 1/4 of the population in the United States feel they have NO ONE TO TALK TO. . .
Do you want to know what the most scary part of these two studies are? Those studies were done 15 and 23 years ago. . .
Can you seriously imagine
WITH SOCIAL MEDIA
which was viritually nonexistent
and a wisp of a shadow
what the results of such a study
would fare today,
March 29, 2019. . .
Who would have thought that
W E
are the
LITTLE THINGS
(way more than
Social Media
Technology
Pharmaceuticals
Scientific Discoveries
Medical Advances)
A few years ago there was a commercial that represented,
GO TO MEETING. COM
and their mantra was so powerful
I still remember it years later
because I thought
I T
to be
THE CURE
for a lot of the World’s Ill’s;
THE HEALER
of most all shattered
R E L A T I O N S H I P S:
WHEN YOU GO FACE TO FACE,
YOU CAN’T HELP BUT TO SEE
EYE TO EYE
T H A T ‘ S G E T T I N G
R E L A T I O N S H I P P E D
ONE DAY
hopefully one
not so much found on a
c a l e n d a r
but in a heart
will pulsate
u n c e a s i n g l y
that it’s never
pharmaceuticals
medical advances
scientific inventions
therapies
interventions
technologies
or any forms of
social media
(present or unfolding)
that heal us. . .
IT’S RELATIONSHIPS
G E T T H A T
and yes,
Y E S
You’ll have been
RELATIONSHIPPED
. . .and it’ll not only last. . .
IT’LL WRECK EVERY STUDY
(for an ever)
Do you need a study to verify this:
WE ARE BECOMING LESS EMPATHETIC—-
Especially the Y O U N G E R among us.
There
It’s out. . .
Here’s the study:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-me-care
Seriously, are you shocked?
Did you need a study,
Research to verify what you see,
errrrrrrrrrrrr,
what you actually might be participating in every day?
I mean,
W H A T’ S I N I T F O R U S , right?
Uhhhhhhhhhhhh,
E X A C T L Y!
Now wait. . .
the study says that being
L E S S E M P A T H E T I C
has been declining for over thirty years now. . .
But, THAT doesn’t make it any better or brighter does it?
You don’t have to turn on
A N I M A L P L A N E T
or NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
to figure out that a bunch of Lions in Africa are going to go preying on the weak
N O T S U R P R I S I N G !
You won’t have to turn the station to find that the a pack of wolves do the same:
Dominate the Weak
N O T S U R P R I S I N G !
What is Surprising is
T H A T W E A R E N O T A N I M A L S
but we, at times,
we act even less and sadly,
even more vicious. . .
In Michigan, a thief stole more than $600 from a Girl Scout who had worked doubly hard for her money. . .
she has Cerebral Palsy. . .
(I’ll just list one example)
School Shootings. . .
Bombings. . .
Stabbings. . .
U s—-
Lions in Africa?
Wolves in North America?
Thieves
Murderers
Molesters
Liars
Cheaters
Hardly, right?
Truthfully?
Sometimes it’s worse.
We say the right things
We look the right way
We show up in the right places
We smile in the correct way
We nod at the right times
We shed some tears
We fool ourselves and others.
The World is often running the other way.
It’d be easier to blend in,
to run with t h e m . . .
there’s so m a n y ,
no one would notice or at least be able to point us out
U N L E S S
we stand
we go the opposite way
we go upstream
we get mocked as weak
we become
L E S S to B E M O R E
We BECOME more compassionate
We BECOME more empathetic
We BECOME more sympathetic
W E B E C O M E
The most Powerful among us aren’t the Lions,
the Wolves,
the Rich,
the Employed,
the Strong. . .
It’s the W E A K
who day after day are weak
and yet have survived those who one day become weak, too.
It’s often been said down through the ages of places where the weak and strong inhabit
that the WEAK are the STRONG. . .
To shed MORE for LESS is the purest form of Compassion:
To Suffer
W I T H
is an un-matchable power the World knows not enough
and continually, desperately seeks
Where it is found
mocks the Pride of Lions in Africa
and more
The Africa that rears up in us,
tearing at our very selves to conquer
but never quite does…
The Ladle may be nearly empty. . .
but it’s far from being dry. . .
L A D L E U P
Study me T H A T, Batman
