What if I hadn’t moved to the little town that I’m in?
Will people here have more food to eat? More air to breath? Would it be more likely for the taps to gush out water; a matter of questionable certainty in this part of the world?
Outside of my super-simple-yet-super-unattainable-by-many compound, lies hunger and thirst in abundance.
Despite the fertile grounds and the innumerable rivers that crisscross this country..
Despite the coltan and copper and diamonds that freckle its soil..
Or maybe because of that?
Let’s not only focus on those, for also the intangible is struck by the same curse of limited supply..
What about love and compassion and understanding and empathy and all the reassurances that I tend to absorb from those who are close to me? Where would all of those precious emotions go to if I weren’t there? Would they have reached someone in much more need? Someone who is either on the verge of collapse or already found their way in the midst of the deserts of human pain?
It’s as if our collective values and emotions secretly understand the rules of the free market; for what we desperately need in order to thrive is almost always hard to find, but what we don’t need; hatred and racism and AK47s and inequality floods the corners of our world.
Am I fuelling this?
I’m only trying to survive, I can tell you..
But what is entailed in such exercise of survival?
Some mechanisms of survival entail fighting others to grab first what is in perceived shortage..
But wouldn’t it make all the difference in the world if that is changed to fighting for and along others so that this capitalism of resources is done with and everyone gets the share they deserve; the share that exists but is left to rot instead of being given to our hungry mouths and hearts..
For survival isn’t only linked to food and water..
Survival can’t do without compassion..
Without uttering “I love you”..
Even if whispered to strangers only to be encountered but for a moment..
Even if uttered to the dead of the night..