Your Gift To The World

One of my beloved teens wrote and expressed her feelings of impotence and despair at so much tragedy all around her every time she picks up a paper, watches  the news  or opens  Facebook.   she feels  overwhelmed by   so  many   issues,  conflicted  countries,  people  in  need   and   her inability to make an identifiable dent in the flood of tragedy. 

In empathy i can totally relate to her frustration and understand how she feels because i feel it too.  Long ago i stopped watching the news and focused on reading a newspaper or  my tablet.    seeing so  much aggression  and destruction,  homes bombed  into rubble graphically playing out on  screen from the comfort of my sofa  seemed to me an obscenity.   it  seemed  callous to watch  filmography  of famine  and hungry children as i tucked into a bowl of thick, hot, chunky soup.   

I would cry myself into a migraine at the futility of politics or protest to stem the flow of suffering playing out inches from my eyes.   moments later the horror would be swept away as though it had never been shown, replaced by a sparkly, glitzy, ditzy advert for luxury, moisturised toilet paper.

There is a peculiar schizophrenia that western society has developed to protect ourselves from this dichotomy.   i call it the "blink moment".....starving child.....blink......Big Brother.....blink.....flattened city......blink....flashy advert.....blink.....riots.....blink.....Bake Off....blink.

Whatever happens don't give the suckers T I M E .   it takes time to digest horror, for it to touch the emotions, for us to say "enough already", to propel our  bums out of the chair and actually DO something about it. 
  

So, what advice did i give the lovely girly?   quite simple really.

1/   choose a cause that touches you deeply and research it.

2/   decide realistically how much time and energy, physical and                    emotional you can give.

3/   support  your chosen cause to  the best of your ability.     sign                  petitions....post on Facebook or Twitter.....join a charity....talk 
       to  friends and family......donate what you can afford.......keep 
       informed......go on demonstrations.....believe you can make a                  difference......AND.........

.....when the weight of a war weary world becomes too heavy allow yourself some light relief and imagine the fantastical.    what would you do if you were granted the gift of a magic wand, but.....it's use  had a caveat......it would  work only once,  and your gift to the universe had to be F U N !!!

How would you use your wand ?   what gift would you grant ?   i like this one......