Time

[Fearless]

"I'm late! I'm late! For a very important date. No time to say hello. Good-bye! I'm late. I'm late. I'm late." -The White Rabbit

Doesn't it seem like there aren't enough hours in the day to do everything that we want to do? No matter how little we have left to do or how much we've done ahead of time, we never seem to get ahead in life. Our days are so completely packed full of things to do that we rarely have time to do what we want to do.

This said, it is undoubtedly certain that for all that we do accomplish, there are other (sometimes more important) things that we aren't able to do. Spend time with the kids, our families and friends, do homework and work at night, paint the house, fix the garage door, and countless other things. And, although those things are significant, what about more important things that you don't even have time to realize that you should do. What about volunteering? Taking a course at a community college? Starting a family? Going to a museum? Relaxing for once? And so forth.

Wouldn't this country be all that much better if we were all able to take an hour out of our day and devote it to volunteering. Maybe we'd feed the homeless or build a house or work at a local hospice. Or maybe we'd just coach our little kid's baseball team or help an elderly family member around their house. It'd sure be nice to be able to do these things. I don't know a person that wouldn't, that is of course if they could. Not enough time in the day. That's the excuse. But I understand. We have to take care of our own first. An hour of public service is an hour you aren't getting paid for, an hour your child is not being fed with, clothed with, housed with. I understand. But wouldn't it just be nice sometime if we could survive without that extra hour. I know there are those out there who can and don't and I know there are those out there who can't yet they still try to every once and a while. Honestly, I understand. It's not you necessarily, it's the system that's messed up.

There's something that we can do though. Something that, if we want to be able to do all that we want to do, we have to make time for. I cringe to think about the number of people who go into the election booth every time that time of the year comes around and stares blankly at the punch card (or screen, or form, etc.) and fills in the blank for a candidate based on the ethnicity of their name or their gender, or because their best friend from high school had a dog by that name. Flip a coin anyone?

What we so desperately need to do in this country is remain informed. And not just about politics, about life in general. We have to make time to understand the issues, to understand others, to learn to co-exist in this world with each other. Why do we have war? Two reasons: greed and misunderstanding. Naturally, these issues are huge, vast concepts that any one person could only hope to begin to understand in an entire lifetime. But we have to make time to try. Mankind will not be long for existence if we cannot conquer our differences.

It's time we ask ourselves why we discriminate, why we hate, why we treat others unequally. The good news is that it isn't always our faults. Many times we are indoctrinated into a way of thinking through our families, schools, governments, religions, and so forth. Of course, a good indoctrination, one that treats everyone equal, is good. It will benefit us in the future and I can only hope you who did have it pass it on to your children, students, citizens, worshippers, etc. Naturally this is just me talking. Your idea of a good indoctrination is probably different. Sadly, I realize, most people are very discriminatory to certain groups of people even if they don't realize it.

Let me ask you something. Would you like someone to tell you that you are inferior to them because you are too fat? Too short? Too poor? That they are going to treat you as a second class person just because of who you are? Would you like that? Then take some time and look real deep within yourself and realize your shortcomings. We all have them. Realize who you discriminate against. Get down to the root of the issue. Find a place inside yourself that is disgusted by how you feel about them and work from there. Eliminate discrimination from your life. Do not hate. See everyone as equal with your own eyes. Don't just say it; mean it. There's no use lying to yourself. Really do it.

Of course, in your mind there are probably a hundred better things on your list of things to do when you have time. I won't force you to make mankind better. I won't make you do anything. All I can do is hope that one time when you do actually have some free time that you'll sit down and think of what I've said. All I want is world peace, infinite acceptance, and complete equality. True, it's a lot for one person to swallow, but there are six and a half billion of us. Surely together we can succeed. And, after that, just imagine the things we could do together.

Originally posted at: http://unwilling-dystopia.blogspot.com/2006/03/time.html

[bemildred]

1. What are you, some kind of appeaser or apologist for bad people?

:hi:

[Fearless]

2. Not in the least.

Merely drowing out a tired old excuse.

[bemildred]

3. Well. I share your view.

More compassion and understanding, even for people that do bad things, would be a good thing. Hate doesn't fix hate anymore than killing fixes killing. You don't think well when you are angry, even when the anger has good cause.

[Fearless]

4. Very true.