Deep Thoughts from Wino Wednesday's

     Wednesday night happens to be the night of one of my most cherished long standing traditions, which I do not have many of these days. In fact, it currently happens to be my only long standing tradition, which is probably what I look forward to it so much. It is Wednesday night with the girls. A night were we usually workout, eat, drink wine, and totally lay everything on the table in mostly reassuring discussions. Last nights topics happens to be one of my favorites, mostly because I obsess about the topic. It is a topic borne out of frustration and I was given the opportunity to hear others opinions on a problem people rarely admit to. I will title the conversation hence forth as, "How does one shit rainbows?" Come on people, you all know what I am talking about.

      Last night there were 3 different ladies, with three totally different life experiences. Different things effect us and that is why the conversation was just frustratingly therapeutic in a rich way. We all just simply wanted to know why it seems that some people just shit rainbows, all the time, all day, every day. From the opposite sex who casually walks about their life with just explosive diarrhea of rainbows (although I am pretty sure when my husband married the woman who walked under a thousand ladders, broke a million mirrors, was a horrible person, probably Hitler, in a past like, his luck, karma and ability to "shit rainbow" was quashed. Sorry!), to the acquaintance of FB with posts equating their life to something like skipping through a field of daisies while squirting out a rainbow with every step. (Though we all know these people to be frauds, it is still frustrating how obstinate they are about admitting adversity.) To the coworker or friend who love their job/life/kids/world so much they are marking everything up with their stupid rainbows. They never get laid-off, never fight with their kid of significant other, everything is always coming up roses.

   What it seems to boil down to was that everyone wants success in their own way. Wanting your own success does not in anyway diminish happiness for other peoples success. It just gets frustrating watching it "happen" for everyone but yourself. For us, it was more about wondering when it was our turn? When would it be our time to shit rainbows for once? Everybody's success is different, some is fleeting and some sticks around for life. Sometimes it seems like days, weeks, months and years that we are floating around in life's not so pleasant excrement just waiting, working, searching for a glimmer of hope and color. Sometimes hard work is rewarded, sometimes nepotism, some time lies and manipulation, and sometime it is just frustrating when everyone around you seems to be winning but you. I think acknowledging as much actually sets you a little more free to search than you were before. It allows you to proceed with change. Success is not always tangible or materialistic. My 2 friends are raising 3 kids with the ridiculously bests personalities. Those kids reflect the love, warmth, and openness that resides in their homes and that is a giant success.

   I think in retrospect, a big difference is that three of us are very authentic souls. We have a hard time grinning and bearing it through gritted teeth. When people hurt us they know, when we are hurting we are not ashamed, and when we fail it is for most to see. We have known each other for a decade, and we not only wear our hearts on our sleeves for ourselves, but for everyone else. Not everyone does that, and that is also certainly OK. But sometimes it is comforting to know others struggle along side of us, especially if it can be a shared experience. We can learn and help each other. We can share love, pain, and happiness. (We can also share wine and the inexplicable experience of watching Sharknado) We might still be searching for something but at least we are searching together and that itself is a rainbow. Our lives might not be perfect, we might not know where we are going, or how to get out of Bayview for that matter, but at least we still have hope that things are out there for us. For everyone out there, even if we think we are failing at times for a day, weeks, months, or years most of our failure is borne out of our own perception. Who knows, we might even be shitting rainbows to other people.

Plight of the Refugee

 
    If you have not heard about the plight of the Yazidi people in Iraq by now you need to. If you do not know the general state of the refugee world, that should be a crime. Many American's have this uncanny knack to just avoid all bad in general, including the news. I say, why? When John F. Kennedy was elected to the presidency in 1960, many can recall one simple sentance from his innagural address, "And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man." But to really know what he is trying to convey, you have to read his whole address. He was essentially asking for a new world, with law and order, with cooperation and prosperity. Most of all, he wanted his fellow Americans to not only participate in this new world, he wanted them to have a hand in creating it. What a better way to create that dream than by helping our fellow man in need, no matter how near or far. Our difference do not make us immune to the most common of human emotions, fear, suffering, sadness, joy, and happiness. Kennedy was predicting, in the dawn of the this globalized era, that Americans would have to play their part in order for the world to prosper. Do we have problems in our country? Most decidedly yes, can we overcome them and help others, definitely. But will we be able to sustain our success in a globalized world with increasing isolation of knowledge and understanding of the worlds problems? No.

     We have so many rights and privileges it is hard for us to even comprehend just fighting for the simple right to survive. Beyond the right to survive, it is to survive in the way we fought for over 200 years ago. To be the makers of our own destiny, whether that be continue practiced religions, remain the master of our households without fear of what is outside, or simply, to go to school and get an education to help our family or country. The right to survive is not something that is granted around the world. It is so easy for us to say it is not our problem, to dismiss their plight because they are so far away. If we (and I include the EU, Australia, and our other Eastern Hemisphere allies, Japan, South Korea, etc) refuse to stand up to tyranny now, if we leave it unchecked, then what will we do when it comes knocking on our door, as it did on September 11, 2001, or with the recent downing of flight MH17.      

     When you look at something or someone in need and no longer see it as humanities' duty, but a "political problem" you have lost the heart and soul of a human being. When we can reduce a group of peoples suffering down to "not our problem" you have lost the right to reach out when your time of  need comes. I have always been flabbergasted and disgusted with our nations history to be so angry, bitter, and content with allowing others around the world to remain at the mercy and struggle of their unstable regions. It is like saying, "#Blessed" because you were born in the U.S. You were not "#Blessed." It is high time we realize we are freaking LUCKY. We are not so special that when we were some little seedling we got to chose, so lets stop pretending we are better simply for being American. The worlds problems are our problems, and in modern times have always been our problem. What sets humanity apart from the animal kingdom is our empathy, sympathy, and higher thought. Lets restore what makes us the superior being and have some compassion when looking at the plight of others, especially refugees. Americans should WANT to deal with this, we should WANT to help. No one is forcing us to, but how can we turn a blind eye to this suffering. Many believe we are "Christian Nation" if that is true than we need to make our sacrifice to help these people in need. If we don't, if we cannot muster the courage to reach out, then we need to stop pretending to be something we are not.

     
    Kennedy's dream for this long forgotten address, "So let us begin anew--remembering on both sides that civility is not a sign of weakness, and sincerity is always subject to proof. Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate." Let us prove ourselves worthy of the title of the Greatest Nation. Let us become a beacon of hope, instead of hording it for ourselves. Only when we become brave enough to stand up to evil will we begin to feel the true meaning of freedom and liberty. Kennedy's vision inspires me, it is what being an American means to me. To see the fear in the eyes of the Palestinian child or the tears of relief and profound sadness in the eyes of the Yazidi who escaped, the distended bellies to the Somalian's feeling starvation and Al-Shaabab, the continued slaughter in South Sudan, and the children risking life and limb from Central America hoping for a life away from drugs, gangs, violence and enduring poverty makes it difficult to really sit in my comfy house every night safe and snug.

 But that is what unites us human beings. When we are united in suffering and triumph, only then are we free. It is Kennedy's true call to arms that I will leave you with, because it is more important now than ever, "Now the trumpet summons us again-not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need--not as a call to battle, though embattled we are--but a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle, year in and year out, "rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation"--a struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease and war itself. Can we forge against these enemies a grand and global alliance, North and South, East and West, that can assure a more fruitful life for all mankind? Will you join in that historic effort?" If we can't do it now, then when can we? We  owe more to each other as fellow human being than we will ever realize.


(On a side note, I can't even search for pictures of children from the Gaza strip because it is to graphic and horrifying to look at)