Do you ever wish that you didn't care so much, that you could slough off

[WCGreen]

the injustice in the world and retreat into your own little world and worry about nothing more than what it is that effects you direcctly...

My mom once told me that my passion frightened her, not in a threatening way but in the way a mother sees that passion for what she thinks is a weakness and sees how it can ruin a life...

Maybe she knew a guy at college who railed against the communist witch hunts, or a person who gave all they could to a cause to only walk away broken, ruined.

Who knows what scared her.

Sometimes I wish I didn't care so much about what is going on, that I could just be concerned about myself and those close to me.

I wish I could be so self-absorbed that it didn't matter.

But then I come back to what I took from my religious training, that I took the words of Jesus to heart and they became a part of me.

Sure all the other rigmarole went by the wayside as I grew older but the idea of social justice, of doing unto others as you would have them do unto you is what I took away from those nuns' earnest teachings of the word of god.

It was when I started to question things, including the hypocrisy of the church, that I staked out a position for myself in this life of mine.

Anyway, most of my friends have learned to live with my passions, most are successful enough now to appreciate that people like me and I suppose most of you are out there still sticking our fingers in the "mans" eye.

I know this because they have started to come back into my life and approach me with not as much scorn as they did when I asked them what did you do for your fellow man today.

Scorn is perhaps too strong a word, because I think many wished they could feel the way I did about all that troubles our modern world. But scorn it was because they were young and frightened, as most people are, about the passions of others.

I don't know what brought this up tonight only that I remembered those strange words my mother spoke to me shortly before she passed away.

I know she was proud of me but I also know that as my mother, she wanted me to attain the material success she had, to have a good and perhaps less complicated life than the one that she knew was in store for me.

Sometimes at 4:30 in the morning, in the wee hours of the night, I wish I had nor chosen that path less traveled and picked the one that was trodded upon many, many times.

Now that I am older and disabled, I pick my battles carefully. Nothing is as grand as those heady days in the early 90's when I embraced electoral politics full force. The disappointment I found when it came to me that most people who seek public office are just plain people who saw an opportunity, that most people in politics are not answering a call but are following a path like anyone else in hundreds of other occupations has tainted the way I look at the world.

But I still think it worth while to tip at windmills because if we didn't, the world would be a far worse place to be than it is right now.

A big tip of my hat to all of those who are out there in the cold demanding that they be heard and that the voice of the people really can spring up without the prodding of a public relations firm...

[upi402]

1. We drove 150 miles to freeze in the cold

and my kid said he was glad we did that instead of him playing Xbox today. A future union thug if ever...
:sarcasm:

[lunasun]

27. You're raising him right! He is thinking outside of the (X)box already nt

[Historic NY]

2. Sure sounds familar.

[Scruffy1]

3. And give up my reason for existence?

Each one of us the living proof of the triumph of the human spirit over the dark forces of tyranny. Forty five years of love is what I call it. How could I compare the love I've given and received with a comfortable and meaningless existence.
No, I don't ever have enough money, but then I think the ultra rich are not as happy as I am. A smile from a brother or sister united in the struggle is payment enough, but a real hug is even better. Could you imagine David Koch hugging anyone and meaning it?
I also think of the times the shit really hit the fan. A few scars is a small price to pay to be in love with humanity. So i I'll die as I have lived walking a picket line in the old or heat, organizing the voiceless and speaking up for those with no voice.

[anniebelle]

4. Sounds like you need to become a Repuke.

I'm with you. I weep for my country, the world, the environment on a daily basis. I, too, am older and also disabled, but I still have a conscience and care deeply about all living things. My husband worries for me because I will stop in the middle of the road for a turtle, snake or whatever. I write letters to the editor every 30 days and all I get in return are hateful letters to my home, personally, asking me why I don't move to Iran or Cuba or some such nonsense. I worry about the children I see that are growing up with no supervision from responsible parents and apparently care nothing about education in this country. I am so disappointed in my country that had so much potential and seems to be throwing it all to the wind for a few more dollars instead of thinking of the sustainability relating to renewables on this, our only inhabitable planet, for now anyway. It seems to me that repukes just plain don't give a shit about anything but their own sorry selfish selves - how else can they sleep or even see that horrible face in the mirror every day.

[WCGreen]

8. No, just being human, late in the darkest night, to question the path I

have chosen...

Never would I even consider being a republican.

[hfojvt]

18. that's not the only option anyway

one could just be a "lazy" Democrat, maybe write a few small donation checks to candidates or causes, but stay away from all the rallies, and other volunteer efforts. Don't work in the headquarters before election day, don't work on GOTV on election day, etc. Don't follow all the issues like a hawk and try to lobby the legislature/congress. Let the PTB do what they want and don't worry about it or fight them.

But I also decided to put "lazy" in quotes because many people are busy enough with their own jobs and their own home repairs and their own children to not put that much time and effort into politics.

[mmonk]

5. I wish I didn't have to fight such a sick destructive ideology in this country.

[Octafish]

6. Thank you for putting it in words, WCGreen.

You can't help but care. Healing, helping, teaching, serving, loving...It's how the world changes for the better.

[H2O Man]

7. No.

I'd rather suffer on my feet, that be unconscious on my knees. Or, as Gandhi said, "Living Christ is a living cross; life without Christ is living death." (He was not, of course, advocating for formal christianity.)

I certainly understand what you are saying, though.

[truth2power]

9. On the wall next to my computer, this:

"Try as I may I can not escape the sound of suffering.
Perhaps as an old man I will accept suffering with insouciance.
But not now; men in their prime, if they have convictions are tasked to act on them."

--- Julian Assange, 2007 blog entry

[elias49]

26. Very nice. Bravo Julian!

[slackmaster]

10. I think a better approach is to learn to recognize things that you just can't do anything about, and

...choose to not trouble yourself with them but to focus on things that you can do something about.

[KittyWampus]

17. Very wise advise, IMO. It's also good to acknowledge that events are cyclical

and that often, it really is a matter of time.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

11. What is life without passion?

It is a dead, dull worthless thing. And you could never be that way.

Indeed, the world would be a worse place if we didn't tip at windmills. We need people who can see beyond the petty, day-to-day fights, the fights that aren't worth fighting for.

I call those people heroes.

Without them, our souls would shrivel and be worthless. We would be the walking dead.

Without our heroes, we would never realize just how far we can reach.

Well said, Chris.

Recommended.

[sabrina 1]

12. Sometimes, but mostly I wish more people cared.

That way we wouldn't have to care so much.

But watching what is happening in Wisconsin, I am feeling better that more people are beginning to care so that should make it a lot easier for those who have been struggling all along to get the truth out.

[ChiciB1]

13. HONESTLY, For My Own Well Being I've HAD To MAKE Myself Cut

out a LOT! As a Boomer I find the APATHY in America astounding and living where I do it's FULL OF REPUKES and a LOT of rich people live in my area. I'm NOT one of them though! I think this is either the 2nd or 3rd highest income per capita area in Florida!

Too many people love the "throw away society" and it HURTS MY HEART! My daughter & son were brought up to be conscious and caring, AND they are, but they have begun to worry about me because of how depressed I've gotten. I have OCD and find myself losing SO MUCH SLEEP all the time. Something will pop in my head around 3:00 AM or so I simply CAN NOT get it out of my head, so I wake up tired and worn out!

It's so defeating so much of the time and drives me crazy. But right now, it's very warm down here in Florida and I'm working outside potting plants to grow and sell! A good way to make money because I can undersell locals and they go like hot cakes.

On my way out right now, just wanted to see what was happening RE: WI and protests!

:grouphug: to ALL how care like I do... I KNOW it hurts!

[WCGreen]

14. It does, some times, especially when your family is on the other side...

[OnyxCollie]

15. But Then It Was Too Late...

http://dynamics.org/~altenber/LIBRARY/EXCERPTS/MAYER_MILTON/

“And one day, too late, your principles, if you were ever sensible of them, all rush in upon you. The burden of self deception has grown too heavy, and some minor incident, in my case my little boy, hardly more than a baby, saying “Jew swine,” collapses it all at once, and you see that everything, everything, has changed and changed completely under your nose. The world you live in — your nation, your people — is not the world you were in at all. The forms are all there, all untouched, all reassuring, the houses, the shops, the jobs, the mealtimes, the visits, the concerts, the cinema, the holidays. But the spirit, which you never noticed because you made the lifelong mistake of identifying it with the forms, is changed. Now you live in a world of hate and fear, and the people who hate and fear do not even know it themselves; when everyone is transformed, no one is transformed. Now you live in a system which rules without responsibility even to God. The system itself could not have intended this in the beginning, but in order to sustain itself it was compelled to go all the way.

“You have gone almost all the way yourself. Life is a continuing process, a flow, not a succession of acts and events at all. It has flowed to a new level, carrying you with it, without any effort on your part. On this new level you live, you have been living more comfortably every day, with new morals, new principles. You have accepted things you would not have accepted five years ago, a year ago, things that your father, even in Germany, could not have imagined.

“Suddenly it all comes down, all at once. You see what you are, what you have done, or, more accurately, what you haven't done ( for that was all that was required of most of us: that we do nothing). You remember those early meetings of your department in the university when, if one had stood, others would have stood, perhaps, but no one stood. A small matter, a matter of hiring this man or that, and you hired this one rather than that. You remember everything now, and your heart breaks. Too late. You are compromised beyond repair.

“What then? You must then shoot yourself. A few did. Or “adjust” your principles. Many tried, and some, I suppose, succeeded; not I, however. Or learn to live the rest of your life with your shame. This last is the nearest there is, under the circumstances, to heroism: shame. Many Germans became this poor kind of hero, many more, I think, than the world knows or cares to know.”

I wish I didn't know the things I know now. I was happier then, and had hope for the future.

[KittyWampus]

16. You know, it's possible to care and not obsess. The sun doesn't come up because you crow.

Controlled passion directed through prepared channels brings light.

Energy simply pouring out blindly brings heat.

[MedleyMisty]

19. Every time I see a tweet from a friend about stupid insignificant stuff

I feel this complete rage and a desire to cuss them out before totally cutting them off and ending the friendship. It's like - how can you be tweeting about Glee when the world is on fire? Do you not have any sort of empathy, any sort of human emotion at all?

Things got to this point because of complacency, silence, acceptance, not caring at all about anything or anyone but yourself and what's on TV tonight. I can't be friends with people who are like that. I can't.

And yes, I scare them. But not nearly as much as they scare me.

[kentuck]

20. Well said, WC....

I know exactly what you are talking about...

k&r

[Prophet 451]

21. Constantly

My mental health (clinically deranged) and blood pressure (high) would probably be a lot better if I could manage to turn away and not care. I think it was Jung who said that a good portion of his patients were not actually mentally ill but suffering an entirely reasonable reaction to the world around them (which was going through WWI at the time). Most people wander through their lives like sleepwalkers, never quite understanding or caring about the world or those around them. Most people see only a few threads of existence but every so often, just occasionally, a few of us can see the tapestry. And maybe we're the ones who never cut our hair to fit in, who never made the trek up the dial from rock n' roll to easy listening, who still answer that question of "what are you rebelling against?" with "What have you got?".

It'd be a hell of a lot easier to close my eyes but that's the price of understanding, that you can't stop understanding. Once you've been awakened, you can't ever go back to sleepwalking through life, not and live with yourself anyway. Maybe caring is what'll kill me but fuck it, you gotta die sometime and I'd rather it be for something I believe in.

[WCGreen]

22. what are you rebelling against?

what a wonderful way to capture the geist of the troubled times we are living in, the snarkyness of the question, the manner in which you place it...

[kenichol]

23. I just love you nt

[flvegan]

24. Not just no, but hell no.

Yeah, not caring sure would be nice and easy. It's the ultimate in selfishness. But then I'd be dead like them. I'm no zombie.

[madfloridian]

25. I guess I will always tilt at windmills.

I would rather not do it, but I don't know how to stop.

Best to you.

:hi:

[lunasun]

28. Yes and I do not know how others do it ! a lot of folks are on ignore to reality

or in their own little world or an invented world sold to them by mass media.
I have asked before why do I have to notice, think , care and then do something??? Others seem so happy in Oblivion

[warrior1]

29. I hope this doesn't show to harsh but...

why are republicans, freepers, teabaggers always wrong on every issue? Correct me if I'm wrong..please.

[proud2BlibKansan]

30. Daily

[defendandprotect]

31. No -- just the opposite -- people who don't worry me -- !!

[rucky]

32. My wife does.

She didn't sign up for this, but it's my nature.

[barbtries]

33. i do wish i could turn away.

at times in my life i have. we are who we are. good post, thank you for being you.

[snappyturtle]

34. No. If I were to quit caring I wouldn't be in a personal place worth living in.

Your OP struck a chord with me as it did with those who proceeded me...thank you.

[donheld]

35. I sometimes think "why should I put so much energy into it if so many others never seem to care."

[clyrc]

36. Sometimes I do because it is too much

I was concerned about people and their problems when I lived in the US, but I live in the United Arab Emirates now, and sometimes I think I will go crazy with outrage. A list of things that horrify me would be too long, but child slavery and abuse, abuse of women, and widespread rape in the countries surrounding where I live make me feel horrible. I can't pretend that they don't exist, or that they have nothing to do with me. When I was in Turkey last year, there was a young Turkman selling tourist trinkets outside my hotel. He had ruined hands from making carpets as a child. I haven't had any desire to buy a carpet since then. I worry about the fabric for the clothes I wear, among other things. It's not just the plight of women and children that makes me sad, it's also the impoverished, exploited men, too. The UAE is horribly exploitative of most workers. What I can do about any of it is precisely nothing. Moving to the UAE has convinced me more than ever that all people are connected and there is no such things as a special class of people who deserve more than others. The best I can do right now is to treat everyone with the respect they deserve as a human being, but that seems like very little.

I haven't stopped worrying about the US, though. Not only is my whole expended family there, and some great friends, it's my home country and it will always be special to me. I've been heartsick over events in the US. There are days when I understand completely why anyone would not want to feel.

[WCGreen]

37. To rea h out as you are doing while in the midst of so much is

bringing personal dignity to an undignified system.

[judesedit]

38. Excellent article. My feelings exactly. Bravo to all who braved the cold for the American people

Although I wasn't near a state house, my car was in the garage for 4 days, I'm in the middle of a move, work all night long by necessity, I feel I still should have made it happen so I could be right in the middle of one of the crowds backing Wisconsin citizens. I've demonstrated many times, NOT in such cold temperatures. Maybe a 40 degree-er in there, but not like these brave people. I applaud them with my whole heart and soul. We must get rid of the unstable, racist crooks and liars running this country and do it asap.

Our state and federal governments are "good-ole boy" clubs and I'm starting to realize that it's probably been that way all along. We must get these selfish, dangerous crooks and clowns out of office one way or another. EXCEPT for the use of fire arms! The Palins, Becks, Bachmanns, McCains, etc. of this world must be shown the light. And that their way is the WRONG way. They are hate-mongers. We need tolerant, INTELLIGENT, problem-solving peace lovers for equality and justice for all Americans.

Since the top 20% wealthiest own 80% of the wealth in this country, they should be paying 80% of the taxes....not 50%. Don't you agree? This is the fair way. They get ALL of the perks, hardly pay for a thing. Their signatures exempt them from just about everything. They overdraw their enormous accounts, "forget" to pay their mortgages, lawn people, pool cleaners, TAXES, etc. They should be hunted down and forced to pay...with interest and penalties like the rest of us!

It's time for a real change and I'm so proud of the teachers, nurses, fire fighters, policemen and women, construction workers, plumbers, electricians, autoworkers, steel workers, food and service workers, canners and industrial workers, and every other person IN a union or not in a union for building and keeping this country running for over 2 centuries now. I know there is no way they would have let the infrastructure in this country decay to the point it is now...thanks to the complete and greedy idiocy running this country and pulling the purse strings for the past decade....or more. Think of all of the jobs that would create. They don't want jobs...the wealth will start to spread out again and they want it all. Our suffering death are just collateral damage.

Keep up the good fight. I know I will every possible chance I get. Matter of fact..you can't shut me up about the injustices in this country and I am hated by every breathing, rethug redneck I know...and I live in the state of Florida! It's well worth it. Maybe one little bit of sense will actually sink into their thick skulls if I repeat it enough. Bravo to all out there. You are absolutely the best patriots America has...next to our awesome military!

[judesedit]

39. Just remember...the squeaky wheel gets the grease!

.

[pinboy3niner]

40. ALDONZA: Why do you do these things?

DON QUIXOTE
What things?

ALDONZA
These ridiculous... the things you do!

DON QUIXOTE
I hope to add some measure of grace to the world.

ALDONZA
The world's a dung heap and we are maggots that crawl on it!

DON QUIXOTE
My Lady knows better in her heart.

ALDONZA
What's in my heart will get me halfway to hell.
And you, Señor Don Quixote-you're going to take
such a beating!

DON QUIXOTE
Whether I win or lose does not matter.

ALDONZA
What does?

DON QUIXOTE
Only that I follow the quest.

ALDONZA
(spits)
That for your Quest!
(turns, marches away; stops, turns bock
and asks, awkwardly)
What does that mean... quest?

DON QUIXOTE
It is the mission of each true knight...
His duty... nay, his privilege!
To dream the impossible dream,
To fight the unbeatable foe,
To bear with unbearable sorrow
To run where the brave dare not go;
To right the unrightable wrong.

To love, pure and chaste, from afar,
To try, when your arms are too weary,
To reach the unreachable star!

This is my Quest to follow that star,
No matter how hopeless, no matter how far,
To fight for the right
Without question or pause,
To be willing to march into hell
For a heavenly cause!

And I know, if I'll only be true
To this glorious Quest,
That my heart will lie peaceful and calm
When I'm laid to my rest.

And the world will be better for this,
That one man, scorned and covered with scars,
Still strove, with his last ounce of courage,
To reach the unreachable stars!

[WCGreen]

42. Bravo!

[NeeDeep]

41. It's looking like care is what makes us "Liberal"

and not caring is what drives the conservatives. I have noticed that they are consumed with what they don't care about, and also go as far as 'inventing' reasoning not to care. They live off the caring effort and works of good people but then turn around and attack people that care. I think it's great to take care of #1 and if you got any left over, care about another human being, it's certainly better than fooling people into thinking you care, like the republicans!

[Duval]

43. Hugs from a kindred spirit! n/t

[2banon]

44. too late to recommend,, give it a kickity n/t

[NICO9000]

45. Short answer: YES!

I just got into it with my 86-year-old dad. He's a former Retail Clerks union member and if not for them, our family would have had a pretty fucked life. He couldn't understand why I was getting so upset over pig Walker. I even told him I was really sick of all the "greedy white pigs" screwing everyone over and he just didn't get it.

Personally, I've had to cut down on my online and progressive radio time during this whole Wisconsin thing. I know exactly what's at stake here and I can't take the MSM trying to pretend there's actually two sides to this story when anyone with a working brain knows exactly what's the repukes real agenda is here. And some stupid poll came out now that if WI voters had to do 2010 all over again, they wouldn't have voted for the pricks now doing their best to destroy them. I wish I could sympathize with those folks, but I've had it with the ridiculous collective amnesia we see every election year. If voters don't know what RW politics are all about at this point, then they deserve what they get. Shame that the rest of us have to endure the pain they so readily vote for over and over.