Looking the Other Way

Have you ever watched the news and seen places of terrible destruction and war and for little more than a moment hurt for those people? Have you ever seen a documentary about some part of the world where children are forced to become mindless killing machines with little more than mere survival for just one more day on their minds and felt that sick feeling in the pit of your stomach that reminds you that it could just as easily have been you had you been born there? Have you ever seen a homeless person walking down the street in tattered clothing and as skinny as a rail carrying their wealth on their back in a shoddy backpack and almost...almost stopped to give him some money?

Every so often something jars me back into the reality of this world that I live so comfortably in and from deep inside of me comes the desire to DO something...anything to ease the suffering of those who live in hell. I wish that I could honestly say that this proclivity is of a completely unselfish nature but the truth is that it is as much a desire to ease the suffering humans as it is to ease my own guilt for living in such a state of peace and relative bliss while others will never know what it's like to go to the pantry and make themselves a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. This truth reminds me that I am scum everytime I get upset because I cannot go to a concert I want to go to or take off from work to do something with friends. A further truth is that while at this very moment as I find myself in this state of humility and yearning to help, by ten o'clock tonight I may very well have forgotten all about all of this and carry on in my life of privilege. I almost wish that something would force me into the place of those suffering people like the children of Uganda so that I would not be able to see it and say, "my God that is awful," and then go about my merry way. But I should be careful what I wish for.