Jesse Helms--the North Carolinian senator who was passionately loved and hated during his long political career--was laid to rest this morning in Raleigh, North Carolina. http://www.newsobserver.com/politics/politicians/helms/story/1135448.html
Throughout his political career, Senator Helms always stood by his extremely conservative opinions on sore issues such as race, sexuality, and education, and was mostly considered a bigot by the newer generations; yet, those who had a chance to talk to him and meet him in person, unanimously claim that Jesse Helms was as gentle as a lamb and a true southern gentleman, very approachable and always ready to chat.
Jesse Helms labeled himself a country boy who was fascinated by the sleepy ways of the South, and spent his life fighting to maintain those traditions of honor, respect and southern hospitality he was raised with. Jesse Helms was as southern as fried steak.
For those who are not familiar with Monroe, NC, it is hard to fully understand the lifestyle of this little town tucked into the warm blanket of Union County, which still reflects the southern charm people have only glimpsed at when watching ‘The Andy Griffith Show’ and ‘Fried Green Tomatoes’.
Most residents in Monroe know one another, and are united in their resolve to resist the northern influence, which has already changed iced tea into Espresso and fried chicken into Tofu, in many of the other larger towns and cities of the State.
Monroe is the town where Jesse Helms was born, eighty-six years ago. I never met the man, but I am sure that, in his youth, he was one of those kids whose mothers spent the day exchanging polite gossip with neighboring ladies, while snapping green beans for supper, or jarring homemade jam. Jesse Helms was the product of southern thinking, a gentleman who did what he thought was best from the perception he had inherited in his youth. He never understood the meaning of each individual being a necessary part of a whole, because, ultimately, he was taught a different reality.
As children, we paint our world with the colors that are handed to us, and absorb the perception which stems from the point of perspective our caregivers adopt, as they form their own views on life. To us, our family unit is the privileged keeper of universal truth, and we assume that our parents’ opinions are sacred and righteous. In attempting to understand this concept, we can just glimpse at children who rally against abortion, while they walk down the street holding huge signs inscribed with thoughts and opinions they don’t even understand: As Jesse Helms spent his life expressing Monroe’s values, these children speak the truth of their parents, and honestly believe that they are fighting for the greater good of all.
Our perception is directly impacted by our upbringing, and by the lifestyle we have identified with, but as we shift toward a greater understanding, people are becoming more open to embracing a merger between the new and the old, slowly shedding the fear of losing the individual identity born from pride in one’s heritage.
And hopefully, between now and then, somebody will come up with a recipe to make Tofu taste as good as fried chicken.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Sunday, July 6, 2008
The Storm and the Rainbow
The sun still shines behind the storm clouds.
Although this is a scientifically proven fact, it is also the first thing people choose to forget when Mother Nature unleashes its fury.
Similarly, each time we are caught into a life storm, we get easily swept into the whirlwinds of fear and doubt, and forget about the cyclical nature of all things.
We survive through the birth and death of loved ones, disease and marriage crisis, parental challenges and job uncertainties, but we seldom take the time to observe that each event quickly explodes and saturates our life with uninvited misery only for a limited time, before it naturally runs out of steam and comes to an end. If we were able to see the bigger picture beyond the blinding patina of drama, we would see life storms for what they truly are: the necessary eradication of the old and the nurturing of the new.
We blame unpleasant occurrences on an unkind destiny, and rarely acknowledge that the storms we ride are necessary portals we must step through, if we ever hope to reach the finish line and achieve what our hearts desire.
A person stuck in the stagnant waters of an unsatisfactory relationship may have to face the storm of a breakup, before he or she can focus on seeing the sparkling light of a new, more fulfilling love affair. If parents wish for their children to become more responsible and realistic, their own life may be temporarily unsettled by the mistakes the children will have to make, as they learn a sobering life lesson which will gift them with greater wisdom and an increased sense of reality.
Most life storms bring along winds of change, but even if we eternally wish for positive alterations in our lives, deep down everyone is afraid of shaking things up.
We unrealistically expect to reach the desired destination without going on the trip.
Just as weather storms are visible on radars and to the naked eye, most life storms are also easy to detect before they approach, and allow us time to make the necessary preparations.
In a few cases when situations explode without warning, we need to be aware that even those events will often lead to unexpected benefits in their aftermath.
Whether we go through a summer storm, a sudden tornado, or even a hurricane, all that will ever be destroyed is the manmade illusion of material stability. What truly matters remains untouched, and sometimes even enriched.
The next time dark clouds loom ominously on the horizon, we can remember that this new storm, like all others before, will pass, the clouds will dissipate, and the sun will shine brightly again.
And, maybe for the first time in our life, we’ll notice the soft colors of a beautiful rainbow, painted on the clear skies of new and unforeseen opportunities.
Although this is a scientifically proven fact, it is also the first thing people choose to forget when Mother Nature unleashes its fury.
Similarly, each time we are caught into a life storm, we get easily swept into the whirlwinds of fear and doubt, and forget about the cyclical nature of all things.
We survive through the birth and death of loved ones, disease and marriage crisis, parental challenges and job uncertainties, but we seldom take the time to observe that each event quickly explodes and saturates our life with uninvited misery only for a limited time, before it naturally runs out of steam and comes to an end. If we were able to see the bigger picture beyond the blinding patina of drama, we would see life storms for what they truly are: the necessary eradication of the old and the nurturing of the new.
We blame unpleasant occurrences on an unkind destiny, and rarely acknowledge that the storms we ride are necessary portals we must step through, if we ever hope to reach the finish line and achieve what our hearts desire.
A person stuck in the stagnant waters of an unsatisfactory relationship may have to face the storm of a breakup, before he or she can focus on seeing the sparkling light of a new, more fulfilling love affair. If parents wish for their children to become more responsible and realistic, their own life may be temporarily unsettled by the mistakes the children will have to make, as they learn a sobering life lesson which will gift them with greater wisdom and an increased sense of reality.
Most life storms bring along winds of change, but even if we eternally wish for positive alterations in our lives, deep down everyone is afraid of shaking things up.
We unrealistically expect to reach the desired destination without going on the trip.
Just as weather storms are visible on radars and to the naked eye, most life storms are also easy to detect before they approach, and allow us time to make the necessary preparations.
In a few cases when situations explode without warning, we need to be aware that even those events will often lead to unexpected benefits in their aftermath.
Whether we go through a summer storm, a sudden tornado, or even a hurricane, all that will ever be destroyed is the manmade illusion of material stability. What truly matters remains untouched, and sometimes even enriched.
The next time dark clouds loom ominously on the horizon, we can remember that this new storm, like all others before, will pass, the clouds will dissipate, and the sun will shine brightly again.
And, maybe for the first time in our life, we’ll notice the soft colors of a beautiful rainbow, painted on the clear skies of new and unforeseen opportunities.
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Changing the world one act at a time.
In the aftermath of 49-year-old Esmine Green’s death, after she collapsed in a NY hospital where she had been waiting to be evaluated for 24 hrs, people are scratching their heads.
In a shocking video released to the media, Esmine is seen thrashing on the floor of the waiting room for over thirty minutes, in obvious distress, before she died. Hospital personnel are caught on tape while passing by the collapsed woman, ignoring her condition entirely.
So far, six people including security and medical personnel have been fired and many of the hospital policies have been revised, but six children are still left alone without a mother to care for them.
At least two or three people walked beside Esmine Green while she was in the throes of death, but went on to mind their business as if she was not there.
Since the late eighties, a lot of emergency rooms around the country have admitted that their lack of proper care toward patients is aimed at discouraging people from going to the ER. Because of a drop in health insurance coverage, a lot more people have used ER facilities to treat ailments that are routine care and not life threatening, stretching the already overwhelmed staff, and increasing waiting time for patients who go in for emergencies.
The ward where Esmine Green awaited her death is described as filthy and poorly managed, but that’s not enough to explain the total lack of human compassion exhibited in the waiting room. There is no excuse as to why a human being is treated this way.
With crime constantly on the rise, and violence being glorified by the media, we have become desensitized to the suffering of others.
Especially in poverty-ridden areas, residents are so used to witnessing pain and discomfort that they have made them a part of their everyday reality. Life is given very little value, and incidents such as the one of which Esmine Green was the victim are blamed on one thing or the other, with nobody really stepping up to claim their personal responsibility in the act.
As humans, we love the blame game. We blame everything and everybody, we shake our heads in disbelief, but none of us are truly willing to accept the fact that we are all responsible for what is happening. We can’t change the world in its entirety, but we have the opportunity to change the reality we live in by at least caring for one another.
We spend our lives consuming ourselves with worry over things that are out of our sphere of control, but willingly turn our heads away from events we can personally impact.
We have deliberately isolated ourselves from the collective consciousness of the world, and have become disconnected from the light that each life brings to the whole.
The dim light of one candle might be bright enough to expose the path to walk, but the light of a thousand candles will make the road clear and the obstacles visible.
By opening to one another we can allow ourselves to widen our perspective and understand the value of life beyond first impression.
It is time we reclaim our divine nature and renew our connection to the light that lives inside each of us, regardless of circumstances.
When someone needs our help, whether it is a hungry man asking for change or a woman seeking medical attention, we need to open our eyes and see that we are in front of a window of opportunity, through which we can soar to the higher skies of human compassion and unconditional love. And when the rest of the world seems to be crumbling around us, we can peacefully know that we are taking steps to change what we can, one act at a time.
In a shocking video released to the media, Esmine is seen thrashing on the floor of the waiting room for over thirty minutes, in obvious distress, before she died. Hospital personnel are caught on tape while passing by the collapsed woman, ignoring her condition entirely.
So far, six people including security and medical personnel have been fired and many of the hospital policies have been revised, but six children are still left alone without a mother to care for them.
At least two or three people walked beside Esmine Green while she was in the throes of death, but went on to mind their business as if she was not there.
Since the late eighties, a lot of emergency rooms around the country have admitted that their lack of proper care toward patients is aimed at discouraging people from going to the ER. Because of a drop in health insurance coverage, a lot more people have used ER facilities to treat ailments that are routine care and not life threatening, stretching the already overwhelmed staff, and increasing waiting time for patients who go in for emergencies.
The ward where Esmine Green awaited her death is described as filthy and poorly managed, but that’s not enough to explain the total lack of human compassion exhibited in the waiting room. There is no excuse as to why a human being is treated this way.
With crime constantly on the rise, and violence being glorified by the media, we have become desensitized to the suffering of others.
Especially in poverty-ridden areas, residents are so used to witnessing pain and discomfort that they have made them a part of their everyday reality. Life is given very little value, and incidents such as the one of which Esmine Green was the victim are blamed on one thing or the other, with nobody really stepping up to claim their personal responsibility in the act.
As humans, we love the blame game. We blame everything and everybody, we shake our heads in disbelief, but none of us are truly willing to accept the fact that we are all responsible for what is happening. We can’t change the world in its entirety, but we have the opportunity to change the reality we live in by at least caring for one another.
We spend our lives consuming ourselves with worry over things that are out of our sphere of control, but willingly turn our heads away from events we can personally impact.
We have deliberately isolated ourselves from the collective consciousness of the world, and have become disconnected from the light that each life brings to the whole.
The dim light of one candle might be bright enough to expose the path to walk, but the light of a thousand candles will make the road clear and the obstacles visible.
By opening to one another we can allow ourselves to widen our perspective and understand the value of life beyond first impression.
It is time we reclaim our divine nature and renew our connection to the light that lives inside each of us, regardless of circumstances.
When someone needs our help, whether it is a hungry man asking for change or a woman seeking medical attention, we need to open our eyes and see that we are in front of a window of opportunity, through which we can soar to the higher skies of human compassion and unconditional love. And when the rest of the world seems to be crumbling around us, we can peacefully know that we are taking steps to change what we can, one act at a time.
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