Two For Tuesday: Africa

“This is the story of how we begin to remember”  -Paul Simon, Under African Skies

I can often become overwhelmed with the news and all the harshness this world is suffering through right now. And, I don’t mean the challenges of climate change or natural disasters. I mean the tragedy of a serious lack of kindness and compassion, a lack of basic human dignity.

I am often limited to bedrest these days. But as I rested in my comfy bed last night and listened to one of my Spotify playlists in my comfy house, in my safe neighborhood with plenty to eat and safe water from the tap, with my family fully fed and cared for playing games in the next room, this song popped up on my list.

It reminded me how incredibly vast the difference is between my life challenges and those in other places. Right now there are people, especially children, dying from HIV in Africa that could be alive with just a little more kindness and compassion. In fact, we as a nation were actually providing that kindness and compassion in the form of of medication and health care until a few months ago. Now more children are dying preventable deaths because of a policy change. How have we as a nation benefited from this? I ask you, has this somehow made things better somewhere else?

Today, I ask you to consider whether your political ideology is centered and driven by kindness and human dignity? If not why? Kindness is often more difficult than you think and being an advocate for it, being a true kindness warrior doesn’t simply mean opening doors for people at the gas station.

You must think bigger than that. The funny thing is, you can offer some of the most profound, powerful, life changing, world affecting kindness without sacrificing a single thing in your own lives but a simple adjustment to how you choose your own leaders. We have two basic political parties in the United States. Why don’t we have a party whose platform is simply kindness. Isn’t that how we should live and lead? The humanity party. The human dignity party. Why isn’t helping each other the prime political goal?

By the way, starvation is still a major issue in Africa. For the cost of my comfy bed, 25 children could be adequately fed for a full year.

If you are finding this post through the Kindness Club, you may feel like it breaks the golden rule of no political discussion. I should know, I created the rule, and the group. And there will be no debates or politically charged comments.

I will make the discussion about the 2nd song brief. I love Paul Simon! Don’t you?

“This is the powerful pulsing of love in the vein“

This is still about one thing, kindness. Think big, kindness warriors. Think about saving lives. Say something. Do something.

The photos are credited to a man named Marshall Foster. I had the pleasure of driving Marshall and enjoying an inspiring conversation. For more on Marshall, clink on this link below to access his story and as it happens, my inaugural post for Streetlights.blog. I urge you to checkout his website which you I can access through the story. He is a brilliant photographer and a wonderful human being.

We are all connected.

Be love. Be kind.

Life is better with a soundtrack.

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