Okay so there are some things I just don't get.
I guess you could call me somewhat of a ponderer. Well, at least I used to be one. I spent my adolescence mulling over agonising questions that seemingly had no answers. Like the meaning of life, or the reason behind racism. I think it's not an inaccurate statement to say that most young adults/teenagers struggle with these kinds of issues and questions. Youth has the time and energy to be passionate about societal injustices and metaphysical questions.
My parents would, in their own words, essentially tell me to get over myself. What exactly is the point of wondering whether or not people are islands unto themselves? Who cares? What difference could it possibly make to your existence to figure out why people are anti-Semitic or prejudiced against blacks? I remember thinking "how can they not get it? How can they not understand how important an issue this is to resolve?"
Of course, now here I stand, mother to a child who asks endless questions that have no apparent answers. A child, who I think, may one day agonise over what he perceives to be life's injustices. Already, he wonders how it is that we can live in a country where we have so much, when on the other side of the world, people are dying daily from starvation. And while I have the utmost sympathy for my child questioning the morality of eating cows, or the existence of any concrete proof of God, I honestly don't always have the time and the patience to humour him in the way that he deserves. It must be a symptom of old age that we become so burnt out, beaten down and jaded so as to believe that one person's passion isn't enough to change a universal problem. When did we stop believing in David and Goliath?
These days, I find myself pondering less weighty issues, like why it is that no one can refill the toilet paper holder when it is empty. The toilet paper is right there, but they will use it without exchanging the empty roll for a new one. Or why is it that a former jock star basketball player consistently seems to miss the laundry basket when pitching his socks onto the floor. Or what the logic is behind a teenager announcing that she is going out clothes shopping with some friends, but "can you please go to Shoppers and pick up some shampoo because later on when I come home from shopping, I'm going to want to shower and wash my hair and there isn't the kind of shampoo that I like".
To be honest, sometimes I think I stand more of a chance of beating racism and third world countries' poverty, than I do of getting someone to empty the damn dishwasher. Obviously, my passion is misdirected.
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4 comments:
I love, love, love your less weighty issues and I so understand about the dishwasher - I just sent my coworkers a snippy little email reminding them that although the dishwasher washes and dries, it can't unload itself.
Yes, what is it about people that the dishwasher has hidden features like self-load?
I used to say that everyone in my household must believe in magic because *poof!* food was made and on the table at mealtimes and *poof!* clean clothes magically appeared and *poof!* the closet was full of freshly ironed clothing.
Then came the rude awakening when *poof!* I disappeared for a mental health weekend.
This post makes me think. By heritage, I'm mostly Jewish, but I was raised in my grandmother's Catholic household and went to a Baptist church as a child, so I didn't actually think overly much on that part of my life until I was a teenager. The thing is that even though my school was so tolerant on most issues, the boys on my bus were always teasing people about being Hitler or being Jewish. It was an odd and awkward situation, and I still don't know what to do when something like that happens. I made my way in a free-thinking school that stressed that our generation was capable of exacting change even at our young ages and that we had the power to being about what we wanted to see in the world. But I only half believe that. I suppose that I'll just have to see how things are 20 years down the road.
I think that it's more like the adage of the water over centuries eroding a cliff; change is coming, albeit slowly, so that one day soon, one person from a particular generation might seem to have the impact of effecting change singlehandedly. If you think about it, we have come a long way in terms of awareness just within this past generation.
Unfortunately, time also has the effect of eroding one's passion. It is difficult when you get older and deal with more mundane issues to always keep the fires burning beneath you so as to be able to effect that change.
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