Celebrate you in all your divergent glory, and especially celebrate how messed up you are

Then please, go and change the world…make every moment count

I am in an odd mood today and feeling a bit chatty.

If you’ve read any of my posts from the different categories, whether food, fitness, SEX, travel, or just general musings on life, you will have realised I am pretty “messed up”.  I hope that therein lies a lesson that may have meaning for you–it is possible to love the taste of caviar and also to want to crawl across the floor and pay for it.

Blogging for me is like using a divining rod for the most out of control parts of my psyche! One day it’s gay, the next day it’s food, another it’s health and wellness…what gives?  I am seriously off-brand!  But the fact is, we are all just so doggone complicated.  It is a miracle if we can understand ourselves, let alone the patterns of the world around us.

I come from extraordinary privilege.  Chances are, you too. First, anyone born in the West came from privilege.  When you realise that 75% of the people in the world live in the East, but that 80% of the wealth of the world lies in the West, you know what privilege really is.  Or maybe you hadn’t realised…instead, you were thinking about what’s on TV, when instead that Easterner is thinking how can they work hard to better themselves to deserve enough of the pie to survive and to give their kids a chance.  In fact, our needs are that simple–survive with some level of comfort, and give our kids a chance. And, although it may be extracurricular to that central point, as humans in society, when we have the bandwidth and that central need has been met, we must use our leftover energy to create a society where anyone can rise to the top, and privilege doesn’t mean anything.

That’s it folks.  Recognise how much we have, and be thankful. We exist to procreate. That is the meaning of life. After that, if you are privileged, you have enough room to make a positive contribution. No matter how messed up or complicated you are.

Everything else should be fun, or at least an attempt for it.  And the starting point of recognition isn’t your neighbour, or the people you work with, or even random strangers. If you have a job, have enough to live, it is the people who have nothing.  What does that mean?  Nothing means really nothing.  No place to sleep, no place to wash, no place to get dressed with any dignity, no place for anything.  There are whole parts of the world that live in this way.  The folks in the West deal with homelessness, which is not a reflection on the homeless person, but on the society that disregards their own.  How could we?! And that is where all of us with privilege must begin.

Give.

Give to the homeless. Give to the person who comes to wash the windows of your car. Give to beggars. Give to charities. Give money, give time, give moral support. Vote. Vote in support of actions that strengthen the social safety net. Universal healthcare, raised minimum wage, universal basic income, freedom of speech, freedom of choice about your own body, freedom to own your own data. These things are not political and yet they have entered the political debate. Shame on us! Instead, these things are about human dignity. Our first goal should and must be to get all of our fellow humans to a level where they can exist with basic dignity. To vote against that, is to be callous and retrograde.

I live in a small village.  We villagers bicker amongst ourselves constantly.  Every household against every other.  But when the next village starts something, no matter how trivial, with someone from ours, no matter how marginal, our entire village rises up in defense.

That’s how we need to feel in support of our homeless people.  What shame we have.  All of us.  How could we not wrap “us” around our fellow citizens?!

Yes, I am broken inside.  Who am I to admonish anyone else?  Just a nobody.  But who are we as a society to think that conscience can allow a rich nation to have someone sleep on a heat grate at night?  That person had a mother too!  What the ‘f’ is the matter with us?!   “Party politics,” are you kidding me?  We all need to eat, we all need to sleep, we all need to rely on a healthcare safety net. Anything else is the jungle, the nasty jungle. What is the point of being human if we are incapable of humanity? Be good humans.

Some literary a**hole is probably going to write me a comment now that I am all over the place, don’t express myself clearly, that HE (and you can bet 100% that it is a HE) has done lot’s of research, and that I haven’t done anything other than feel [yes, W***R, you know who you are], so I don’t have the right to admonish, but I can barely see the keyboard for the tears.  In other words, F$@%!@ him, stand up, do your part.

Society takes everyone.  From the most downtrodden, most marginalised, who are unfortunately also often the most willing to volunteer…please, everyone, stand up, make a difference…don’t just go to work and worship Mammon…go to work and show love.  And if you don’t have a job, find purpose in what you do…that’s what I do. I don’t have a job either. Doesn’t matter. No matter who you are, how insignificant you think you are, you have a voice. Find it, use it.

“Everything I do must have purpose, must have meaning.”  Repeat after me.  

“Today, I will make a difference.”  But please, don’t BS, go out there and mean it. Live, love, make a difference.