So I am lying in bed and not sleeping for some strange reason and I couldn't help but think about how lucky I am to live where I do. It's something I take for granted a lot. It doesn't occur to me often, but when it does I feel a little guilty about my good fortune in life. I was listening to NPR the other day and was disturbed by the news of 4 car bombs going off in Iraq killing over a hundred people. Normally I would hear this and just go on with my day. Yea, yea car bomb in Iraq. What else is new? But this time it really bothered me. What if this happened in my town? Wow, that would be something else... Over a hundred people DIED just like that. So I don't really want to talk about how horrible the world is, because that is really beyond this blog, but I do want to focus on how lucky I am today.
I never worry about my safety. I wake up in the morning fully expecting to make it through the day unscathed. Fears of car bombs, terrorist attacks, or any other casualty of war does not cross my mind. Can you imagine living in constant fear for your life?
I have clean water to drink every day. I can take a HOT shower any time of day or night. I can go to the grocery store right now and buy enormous amounts of food if I wish. I can say I am an atheist and not be afraid of being stoned to death. I can wear shorts in public (although I haven't in a while...probably has to do with the enormous amounts of food mentioned above). I have the right to vote, to drive, to get a job. Not every woman in the world has these opportunities and I am fully aware of that.
And thinking about these things with Jane in mind makes me even more grateful. I can't imagine how mothers feel who cannot be sure their child will have clean water to drink or food to eat the next day or medicine to make them well, etc. It makes me sick to my stomach to really think about.
1 comment:
I wish everything had a *like* button like on Facebook. People who live in this country take it for granted SO MUCH. Just because things aren't perfect right now, they bitch and gripe and moan. Yes, it's a tough economy right now. No, health care isn't perfect. But all of those things you mentioned are things that people just.. Take for granted. We CAN practice the religion we want. We can wear whatever we want, whenever we want. We can raise our children the way we see fit. We don't have to worry about being bombed, or gunned down in the streets when we walk out our doors. I think it's something more people need to take into consideration before they start bitching about this country.
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