It makes me think.
when you watch stuff on the news there’s this distance, as well as this simplification...
It is as you say. The difference, if you will, between hearing a siren and watching a fire truck go by and waiting anxiously for the fire truck to get to your house which is on fire.

In the first case we know, on some level, what's going on. But we can't relate to it. Even if our house has burned down, we see the fire truck rolling by and it's a distant thing.

When you're waiting for the truck yourself, it's different, harder, because it is personal.

Television, radio, newspapers, all have made the world seem smaller but it is still to large for us to grasp. We read of someone being raped or murdered or robbed or losing their home and it is "someone else's problem". Sometimes, we see that it has happened close to us, a neighbor, someone down the block, or even a relative separated by distance and we feel it more intently. We have an anchor to which we can attach importance and understanding. Neither a full nor complete understanding because it still isn't directly affecting us, but we can at least comprehend that it occured within our worldview.

There are times I wonder about the world we live in. I've wandered far, though never far enough... I envy you your trip abroad, though only a little for I'm working on getting across the ponds myself. And it's a continually surprising thing to see that people are all the same, underneath. We are good and bad and imperfect and saints, all roled into one.

We share our myths and legends and sciences.

We share our emotions (love/hate, joy/sorrow, all emotions seem to be coins with opposite sides that shade our views)

What we still need to learn is how to understand outside of our neighborhood, be that our street, our block, our neighborhood. I don't believe we can really encompass a city, they are too big, too many people. And, even while media brings them closer, they are still too far away to understand.

Which somehow, though I'm not sure yet, ties to speaking of the dead. We rarely stop to think how others view us. Alfred Nobel was given that opportunity and made some drastic changes in his life because he read what people had to say about him in unvarnished terms. <snaps fingers> that's what it was.

The news gives us distance at the same time it brings us closer. It allows us to be more open by putting up a bridge between us that doesn't really bring us face to face. The web does the same thing.

And, for some, this is a good thing. For you, I believe it is. It makes the world both smaller and safer.

Unfortunately, there are far too many l33t d00dz wh0 don't understand the difference between honesty and license to attack. I've met a few myself. And they represent a tyranny of the vocal minority. But I won't get sidetracked by that.

I'm gonna have to post about pens and shoes soon. I've been discussing it with N and I think it bears some relevancy here to talking of the dead and how Jane reacted to your comments.

peace

-J
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hermionesviolin: an image of Alyson Hannigan (who plays Willow Rosenberg) with animated text "you think you know / what you are / what's to come / you haven't even / BEGUN" (Default)
Elizabeth (the delinquent, ecumenical)

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