yada...yada...yada.
the riots in vancouver would never have happened if the people involved had real responsibilities, actual burdens in life that they were forced to carry. the world is a free oyster to the party-hearty..it can be gobbled up and shit right back out without a lot of thought in between.
but for the rest of us..life is actually about not only living but also about surviving and getting thru the days as best as we can.
i think where we run into trouble is this sense of entitlement we have...."life is supposed to be this way"...and we get angry, frustrated, resentful when it is not how we had imagined. and what do we actually do to make it the way that we want? do we whine, bitch, complain, give up?...do we judge, point fingers, sneer at the difficulties of others cuz we happen to be lucky enough to live in our version of the right answer world?
i like these two new little shih tzu's...they remind me of two cheerful little old fat brothers going thru life as it comes. they have probably never caused one single ounce of unkind harm in their combined lives together....i think they view their life as no fault no foul..life just happens and then they get on with living it.
in a perfect world...shit doesn't happen. but since life is not perfect and shit does in fact happen, they choose to instead of bemoaning this fact...to move on as best as they can.
there will always be homeless animals because animals depend on humans to survive and humans sometimes have difficult and challenging lives. people do get old and sick, people do lose their homes and their jobs, some people do get pets and not care for them well, and some people are so twisted and broken that they break all of the lives connected with them too.
and while i am the first to admit that no animal should ever have to come to saints..the fact remains that many, many do...and like these two fat boys at 13 and 15 with very few options..they are damn lucky that they were able to.
i have this vision of my perfect world inside my busy and over burdened head...and it begins when i can finally retire. until then...i have work to do. and that work involves standing at the cliff edge and offering an alternative path to their ends. this path isn't always easy for any of us..but for those who would like to keep living, its the best they can get...at least for awhile.
these animals did not survive into their golden years without growing some flexible steel inside. they are not objects of pity, they are creatures with the will to meet and embrace their lives. and i am not going to waste either their or my time with anger, regrets or recriminations about what should or should not be.
i am just going to work off my ass off to help them feel loved, cherished and happy. that is how i work towards eventually finding a perfect world for us all today..tomorrow will come what may....and we will deal with getting thru that day as well as we can too.
in a perfect world, rioters and looters would be out saving animals, or feeding hungry children or minimizing suffering out in the real world.
until then..it is up to me and you.
Hear, hear Carol! Very eloquently said.