I got up early and walked to my favorite cafe for a flat white and pão de queijo. Then I walked downhill to a container at the edge of Rossio square, that serves as a Covid test center, and waited for my test appointment. In January the line would already have been hundreds long, but today I lined up second.
A maskless American man came over and inquired when the station would open. I told him it would open around 0930. He lined up in the back — by now the line consisted of maybe 10 people — and said, nobody cares about Covid anymore… that’s just my opinion. I didn’t say anything and turned away.
Was this man an exception or is that by now the majority opinion? Did he have parents or had he known old folks who got very sick or died? How did he become so callous? Is it because nowadays, at least in western countries, aged relatives are placed into homes and one is therefore no longer responsible for them? Out of sight out of mind?
A few moments later the door opened and I was admitted. A few minutes later it was done, I thanked the nurse, and left.
I have been thinking about this a lot: is aggression and lack of care the result of the extreme wealth imbalance, not just in the US but in many countries? If so it has been building up for along time. We are living in a real “let them eat cake” moment. While NFTs of monkey drawings trade for many millions of dollars, surveys show that 69% of Americans don’t have $1,000 in savings. For them disaster can literally strike at any moment. Impending doom creates aggression and callousness in a struggle to get to higher ground before drowning.
I stopped at Muji to buy some supplies and then I walked home without looking at the map. Progress. I started a load of laundry and mopped the floor.
heartbreaking. these past two years for so many people.
I lost 3 family members. Grief that never goes away….my cousin, in the past week, is in a hospital cause he cannot cope. It is just so sad.
I do not know how people are surviving. 69% have only 1,000 in saving – hugely stressful. Mind boggling
We can do better – far better. I know it deep in my bones. I think about this everyday for the past 17 years – it consumes me.
a song i often listen too
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5t5QSiydF9Y&ab_channel=AnormalSessions
ARE WE NOT WISE ENOUGH?
“is aggression and lack of care the result of the extreme wealth imbalance, not just in the US but in many countries? ”
empathy emerges at some point in our development.
Lots of wealthy people have good intentions,…set up foundations etc. Some good work is done with well intended wealthy people. Great appreciation.
And some wealthy not so much. It is a mater of maturity-imo.
re aggression – that speaks to power imbalances. or better said abuse of power issues. Big concern …HUGE concern. We DON’T want to go backwards. Very concerning re world events.
…….powerful topics for sure, and only questions we can mindfully ponder and feel out for ourselves, not really any clear “answer” as they are as unique as 8 billion individuals….
having said that, for me it seems a deeper issue where callousness, lack of care and aggression are symptoms of deeper, long-standing societal dysfunction rooting back hundreds or even thousands of generations that got “frozen” in traumas and wounding that were never acknowledged nor healed and transformed back into exponential energy…thus got passed on to whatever degree of “thickness” per the DNA and individual personality experience, and thus many have gone numb to feeling due to overwhelm. The body and the brain can generally only handle so much. In my belief, we are a lot more than just physical beings, we are Energetic Beings☀️. But up until recently, that quantum belief/approach wasn’t really valued nor given credibility….yet so much in our world today emulates this. Manifestation is as much an internal process as external.
And why such fear of old shadows anyway? Could it be the old Shame pain it brings up—everyone carries some degree of this old human DNA? How many really take the care and gentleness to stop and really become aware & acknowledge the numbness in themselves…..regularly?
And if one is not aware, conscious, caring and gentle with themself, how could they ever be or do that for another person that mirrors their fear….perhaps the very person that they got that lack of care, callousness, lack of consciousness from? Without excuses or judgement, just bringing up food for though And Feeling…
Maybe Michael Jackson was really onto something singing “Man In The Mirror.”