This season, it's raining hunger everywhere.

Pines, oaks, and assorted grasses and vines cover the grounds of public places here in Oregon. It is the end of the dry season. Soon, everyone will don their rain gear, and trek through these paths more cautiously,  with sturdy shoes instead of tennis shoes, with many layers and gloves and extra socks.
Many will attempt to make a living by foraging here in the woods, looking for mushrooms that will bring in good money.
Many will camp out here and there, out of the wind and the rain and the cold, hoping soon to find a job that can help them get out of the rain.

We have colonized the entire Earth, every latitude and longitude, by land and by sea. We have adapted the topography to fit our needs. We have moved earth, damned rivers and opened up channels to keep things flowing the way we want.We have reshaped the nature of matter, bent physical laws of the Universe. We invent ways to work less, and ways to experience more.

Our knees and hips and cornea can be replaced. Our hair and skin and body fat can be tempered.At the doctor's office our chemistry is analyzed and problems are identified. With a few pills and injections,  we can all live past our anticipated calendar years. We live in the richest country in the world.

So, what's our biggest issue?
Too many are jobless, with no resources.
Too many are losing their homes.
We have never seen so many hungry people line up at food pantries!


   

Islands.

 (Picture from the web-some interior decorator blog. I have  forgotten its provenance, but have loved it and kept in my dream file. Please forgive me for not knowing to whom this belongs!)


In interior places as in this lavatory, we peek at the outdoor world, the ever-changing environment that surrounds us and demands our attention now and then.  We are entities to ourselves, our needs primary and basic, our survival high on our list. We forget that we are part of a larger environment.

I'm thinking of how we shut ourselves from the world in our dream houses. We forget hunger, cold, extreme heat, thirst, wind. We see the world trough windows we create, and we manage, sliding our drapes over a bad view, turning our heaters on cold days.  We don't know hunger any more, and we don't understand anyone who might be hungry.

Surrounded by features we install, mirrors to show off our best features, we are in caves all day long, year in and year out.

It's too easy to become islands.

Visioning a better future.

The Shining Light Award

I bestowed this award to Renee at Circling my Head, a few months ago.

It is time that I choose another receiver.

And for this, I need my friends' suggestions. Please suggest a blog that shines light on a problem or an issue we should all pay attention to. Search high and wide.

Most of the time we move along in our daily routines and know pretty much how the world is getting along too. We read newspapers, watch television, pick up a magazine, surround ourselves with tools to improve our efficiency.

We receive compensation that is sufficient and fair; work in well-lighted, clean and safe environments, and go home to well-appointed rooms, enjoying good meals at the end of the day, in our gardens, among roses and pleasant surroundings. When we are ill, our compensation package picks up the cost of our doctors and nurses and medicines.

We think all children live in warm and nurturing homes; old folks are well cared for in golf-linked residences with lake views; and teenagers will grow out of their angst. All is right with the world.

Let's shine a light on the dark, the hidden, the shamed.

Post-Blog-Letter-email-

The blogosphere is full of interesting people with open hearts and generous spirits. I am surrounded by good-will and good-intentions all over the world. It is a new sense of universal causes that brings us all to the dialogue. A new world order.

I thought about how quickly I was linked up with people. One person responds, another finds a link, a third returns to tell me the first one sent her over. This is changing all the formulas. None of us are selling anything, or showing off any other wealth except the wealth of concern for the human condition.

I've been thinking that we could come up with a universal cause that we all push and connect, a cause like world hunger. How could we possibly live among so much abundance and tolerate HUNGER?


That's my proposal. Let's wear BROWN, the color of the EARTH, and add GREEN for clean air, and a touch of BLUE for clean water. Let's draw a banner, a pin, a scarf to wear and to wave. Let's SPEAK OUT- with one voice.

ON THIS PLANET, NO ONE WILL GO HUNGRY AFTER TODAY!