In a funeral service I recently took for a 51 year old man who died of cancer I quoted a woman writer who said, "Life is unfair, but its still good." I had come to the conclusion that's the way life is. There is no rhyme nor reason to early deaths, they often just happen, its the luck of the draw. Who ever the "big man in the sky is" he is not up there deciding who is going to live or die, or who is going to get a fair deal in life. It just happens.
I was talking to my Australian friend's widow via Skype yesterday. In the conversation I had cause to use this quotation. "Life is unfair, but still good." She, with great grace and insight, was saying that really she was fortunate, and said, "For lots of people life just is unfair, how can you say it is good?" She went on to point out some people for whom life is unfair and not good. The Afghanistan mother whose child's body has been mutilated by some American bomb. The mother in some African country who is starving and had husband killed and children wounded in a machete attack by some "rebel". etc. etc.
I need to remember that. For me, in spite of hiccups along the way, and confusions and questions, I can still say that "Life, though sometimes unfair, is still good." But perhaps the majority of people in the world, certainly an awful lot of people, life just is "unfair" and an incredible struggle to survive with dignity.
What am I doing to alleviate that? Am I serious for instance about "Fair Trade" for a start? Damn! it's hard being aware of this world! I watched a film the other night called "Martian Child". In the story this boy preferred to stay in a box, shielded from others, the sun and the goings on about him. When I begin to think of the needs of the world, even just of the community I live in, find me a box to crawl into please! But I can't do that and say that I am "JC's helper". Damn!.... "He" can be a pain sometimes.
No comments:
Post a Comment