Have you ever played "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon"?

[IdaBriggs]

It is a silly game - you pick an actor/actress, and then find films where they either worked with Kevin Bacon, or with someone who worked with someone who worked with Kevin Bacon. Usually, you can find a "link" to darn near ANYBODY who was in a film with Kevin Bacon within six films. (I hope I am explaining this correctly - if you need a better explanation, wikipedia does it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Degrees_of_Kevin_Bacon)

I am learning to play it with the rest of the world. I am only a few steps away from people who are or have been directly impacted by some of the most horrific man made violence in the last few years.

Last year, the family who provided daycare for my children shared the facebook postings of their brother/uncle who was living in Syria; he stood on his balcony and watched rockets filled with chemical weapons fly overhead to destroy lives nearby.

One of my neighbors came here from Iraq; her husband helped the Americans, and when we left, they were given a few hours notice that he was going to be killed, so they fled their home. He is not a citizen yet, so since he cannot find work as an engineer here, he does manual labor. Their children play with mine; she is an amazing cook.

A dear friend who is close with me thanks to Facebook is reeling from the violence in Ukraine at the moment; they brought their three adopted boys home from there maybe eight months ago; despite living in another state, I was able to surprise them with a pizza party on their return home thanks to their amazing local pizza place. Her posts are devastated - they were just *THERE* a few months ago, and I have not had the nerve to ask if others in the Ukrainian adoption community were on the plane that crashed, because frankly, there are just some things I can't bear to think about.

The children in Gaza - well, one of my dearest friends served in the Israeli army at one point, and he has walked the beaches where the children died. We are not talking about the current situation; there are no words.

I know that not all violence is man made - a professional relationship with a woman in Oklahoma became more when the tornados hit last year; we talked about the devastation "a few blocks away" and the luck that kept her daughter safe while other children lost their lives --but somehow, I find the man made violence the most incomprehensible. The tornadoes, the floods, the fires, the earthquakes - the world is a dangerous place, and I *expect* us all to work together to help each other out, and to prevent the loss of life in any preventable tragedy.

But bombs falling from the sky, and all of the other horrific ways the human race has found to KILL EACH OTHER -- these things hurt my heart in ways I can scarcely articulate.

The world is a very big place, and all politics are local. From the safety of my home in non-war torn Michigan, I can see and touch the lives of other people. There is no human being on this planet with whom I do not have a connection within six degrees of Kevin Bacon.

And these people - my extended family of fellow humans - are suffering the insanity of war, while I can do nothing about it.



I do not know why I am posting this. It is Friday afternoon, and this is not news to any of us. I can only ask --

If *today* you are in a place where you have shelter, if your belly is full, your drinking water clean, and you have not heard the screams of innocents living through the nightmare of war, I invite you to join me in a moment of gratitude for the blessings we have been given, and (if you are so inclined) a prayer or other good wishes for those not as fortunate.

And if anyone has any ideas on what else we can do, we are all listening....

Thank you.

[MohRokTah]

1. There's an app for that

http://oracleofbacon.org/

[MohRokTah]

2. As to the rest of your post, it's a mechanistic view of the world vs. connectivity.

Most people take a mechanistic view of the world without realizing that everything and everybody is connected.

Some people are more in tune with that connection between everything.

And too many people cannot see that the taking of one human life is a loss to the entire species. Everybody has something to offer.

[el_bryanto]

3. I contribute to Kiva when i feel this way

Kiva does short term loans to small entrepreneurs, in many cases women, throughout the world, letting them build up their businesses or acquire additional stock. The loans are paid off, usually ahead of schedule, and then the money is loaned to another entrepreneur - I've donated a certain amount of money over the years, but the amount that's been loaned might well treble the amount I've donated, as it keeps getting reloaned.

I don't know if I can do a lot about dictators and war and tragedy - but i can help out a few people, and that's better than nothing.

Bryant

[haele]

4. I know what you mean. And yes, I've been one step removed from people who have been tragic actors.

Including a few of the most negligent narcissists directly involved in some of the worst disasters of this and the last century.
And I've been in areas of this country and elsewhere in the world where only a matter of a day or even minutes kept me out of a massive tragedy. I know how fortunate I have been compared to others.

I wish even just a bit of peace, a bit of light, to anyone who is caught in the whirlwind.

Haele