Persononally, I think this quote should hit home with everyone one way or another. What we do in the privacy of our own homes is one thing, however we as a society, or rather as a species, we need the interaction and common goal. Derick and I had a discussion last night after our group had a meeting about the intricacies of human greed and material possessions. We covet items. We covet people. We as a people have immersed ourselves in that need to always be striving for money, fame, or possession yet we don’t stop and think who we trample in the process. Our goal as a race, supposedly the superior one on this planet, is to grow together. To do this we would have to destroy all the manners of greed. What destroys our world is the want of power. Someone always wants control of another person or item. These people become a hollowed out semblance of their former selves. Striving to make a difference is one thing, but pushing to become powerful is counterproductive to that attitude.
In my own life there are times I don’t voice my opinion. The concept of accepting what your born into, facing this reality of an insurmountable obstacle is something all of us must overcome at one time or another. I am touching on what Amanda and Tony had for a public issue. My Mom is gay; it was a MAJOR change to adapt to that. To be quite honest I don’t know if I can or ever will. It’s one thing when it is someone you met, a friend of a friend, a colleague at work, but when it’s your mom!? How do you deal with that? How can you focus on positive when people form their opinions of you before they meet you based on assumptions about your mom being gay? I decided to touch on this because it is a major political and sociological question. Gays have been making a more united stand on getting recognized in the eyes of the law. Are they wrong for not “shrinking from the world” by voicing their opinions and fighting for something they believe in? There isn’t one right way to do anything, ever! What is crucial is finding the right way to do it for yourself. People shouldn’t hide what they feel strongly about, nothing is ever going to change from old habits if there isn’t an army striving for change. You cant deny who you are or what you want to accomplish in life, it has to become a part of ever fiber of your being to become effective in the end.
-Jeremy
2 comments:
WOW! loved your comment but your first paragraph is so passionate about materialistic things... I completely agree with this and I will have to tell you about my stay on the Hopi reservation. Talk about eye opening and life changing.
As for your mom being gay, I also think of it this way, if being gay was "normal" or the socially acceptable way to live then straight or hetero people would be fighting to be identified with the same rights that gays receive. People shouldn't discriminate. Dr. V
Your first paragraph is extremely insightful and I think we only need pull out our history books to see examples of greed and of the thirst for power wreaking havoc in our world and leaving permanent scars. Throughout history, there seem to be a lot of good ideas about creating a completely equal, utopian society that were undermined by the quest for power and/or material things.
Your second paragraph brings up an awesome point, though: how our perspective changes or is affected when we are directly affected by something. It is so easy for people to say one thing, to have opinions about some issue, to espouse that something is so black and white, but when it actually happens to them is it really that simple? I think if we decide to speak out that we need to not just be considerate of other people's opinions but other people's situations and perspectives.
So often things, especially public issues, are treated as having a clear-cut "right answer" and a clear-cut "wrong answer" but none of them do. We live in a gray society and each person has their own perspective that colors their view of the world.
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