We're So Advanced! Really?

I just got home from seeing the movie The Help with some girlfriends.  This actually has nothing to do with the movie (which was really good and I highly recommend it!) but it just got me thinking...what will the movies 50 years from now reveal about our lives?  What things accepted as "normal" in society now will seem horrendous to our grandchildren? 

The Help (based on a book by the same title) is about black maids telling their stories about working for white southern women.  Treating someone like a servant (or slave) is totally foreign to me, but I can't help but wonder what I would really think if I had been raised that way.  I would never treat someone as less than an equal, would I?  Do I treat all my neighbors on this planet the way I would like to be treated?  It's appalling to look back into history to see how (some) white people treated (some) black people.  It feels like slavery and segregation are some archaic mistakes that don't affect us anymore, but the sad truth is that it is all relatively recent history!  Even more sad, slavery isn't dead.  It just has a different face.

I'm thinking about all the plastic crap that is made in China.  (I'm also thinking about all the other disgusting faces of current slavery that will haunt me if I spend too much time thinking about them.)  So, I'm going to stick to slavery I support, however reluctantly.  Buying cheap things made in cheap factories for cheap prices isn't worth the money "saved".  There are SOULS working in factories, getting grossly underpaid and overworked just to save us a dime.  When I take a moment to think about WHO made the majority of the THINGS I'd like to buy....well, I realize I want less.  I'll be honest, this is hard.  I like stuff and I don't have a lot of money.  I probably will get my kids a Happy Meal toy here and there.  The computer I'm typing on now was probably pieced together by starving children for all I know.  I would have to go without a lot of stuff if I truly wanted to avoid supporting slavery.  How do I find balance in this?  If I buy Fair Trade the rest of my life, will that even make a difference?

I don't have the answers.  And this is only one example.
It's much easier to judge the cruelty of past generations.

Dreams and Idiots

I had a dream last night:  I was rushing to catch a bus...or was I rushing through an airport?   Maybe both.  I was "driving" a wheelchair with my one-year-old on my lap, one hand on the wheel and one arm struggling to keep him from falling off my lap.  It seems there were constant ramps making the wheelchair speed faster and faster.  Just when I thought I'd lose control, I'd skid to a spot where I could put my feet down just long enough to catch a little balance before the next decline.  Sounds exactly like a metaphor for my reality!

When I finally reached the terminal (the wheelchair and baby had left the scene), I tripped and whacked my leg on a railing or something.  As I was "rubbing it out" like my grandma taught me, I noticed rows and rows of people watching me, snickering.  After all I had been through, my desire to be polite was non-existent...so I yelled, "What are you laughing at, you IDIOTS!!?  I hope it hurts REALLY bad the next time you smack yourself...and you WILL!!"

I'd have to say this dream was spot on.  I am getting to the point in my life where I'm tired of wasting energy on people who simply don't deserve it.  I fully intend to stop trying to win the affection of people who just don't like me and face the fact that there are some people that I don't like...and I am better off just staying away from them.  Please don't misunderstand me.  I am referring to the type of people who will listen to your hardships, but inwardly snicker and judge.  I am referring to the type of people who just don't understand and don't care to take the time to understand.  I just don't have energy for them.

And therein lies the one of the many duplicities of human life.  My heart is full of love one moment and I'm ready to kick an idiot in the shin the next.