What Kind of World Do I Want

My niece and her friend Linda have been doing these things called Friday Feasts... Linda sent me the link to the source a while back (I forgot to say thank you so I'll do that now) and yesterday I finally went to check it out. There was a heading and a thing that said you could post if you registered but nothing else. I tried refreshing. I tried searching around. I felt stupider and stupider. Why couldn't I find the feasts? Eventually I gave up and resisted the temptation to share my stupidity and ask the girls for help. This morning I gave it another try and was relieved to see that they are having technical difficulties. There is no feast this week, but I'm not useless and stupid... at least not for failing to find the feast questions.

So then I had to think... What will I do instead? Linda had a post a few days back about a wonderful website that raises awareness and money for autism: What Kind of World Do You Want . I recommend that you check it out.

But the question stuck with me. What kind of world DO I want? I thought maybe I'd try to answer that question.

Since I've been very wrapped up in politics of late, some of my first thoughts go there. I want a world at peace, where people don't use violence to prove their points or take out their frustrations. I want a world in which nobody ever thinks there is anything at all - nothing - that could justify torturing another human being or an animal.

I want a world where people happily - joyfully, even - tend to one another's needs. I want a world where nobody goes uninsured, where nobody goes hungry and where we help people without feeling the need to shame them for their troubles, where we don't even worry if they are trying to bilk us out of breadcrumbs but where we just allow them to eat because they have asked for help. I want a world in which the rich don't feel a need to amass piles of money at the expense of the poor. I have no trouble with people being rich. I do have trouble with people being selfish.

What else do I want? I want a world in which George Bush and Dick Cheney are impeached, convicted and sent to jail for their crimes, a world in which my country takes her honor back.

I also want a world in which coal and oil and other companies put profits AFTER the well-being of the planet. I want a world in which we invest our creative energy in solar power.

I want a world in which people believe in magic and miracles. I don't mean this in a frivolous way, either. Years ago when I was still going to church I took part in a discussion about whether there were still miracles. I was the only person who thought there were. Unbelievable. Life is a miracle. Breathing is a miracle. Thinking, dreaming, flowers blooming are miracles. Children are miracles. The seasons are miraculous. There are so many miracles out there that it's unfathomable to me that anyone could doubt their existence.

Then there are things like reiki - the healing art that I practice. I don't know how or why it works, but it does. I want a world where people's hearts are open to such possiblities. I want a world where those who don't believe delight in the fact that others do.

I want a world in which people are allowed to have their feelings, a world in which it's just as ok to be sad or angry as it is to be happy. Not that I want people to be sad or angry, just that I want a world in which we understand that having a feeling isn't a crime, it's just part of being human. I want a world in which because we are allowed to feel our anger, it would flow right through us and be gone in no time without harming us or anyone else.

I want a world in which we all have healthy relationships to our bodies and our sexuality. I'd like a world in which women were respected as much for their intelligence and creativity as for their bodies. I'd like a world in which women weren't sold into sexual slavery, burned alive, or raped and molested. I'd like a world in which we cared less about who (male or female) somebody sleeps with than who they are and how they treat each other.

Most of all, I want a world in which we look at each other and ourselves with the eyes of love. I want a world in which every child is taught to think well of him or herself and every adult looks in the mirror and sees the beauty inside and out. In that kind of world, we'd reflect that beauty onto those around us as well; it would be a "namaste" world, in which each of us would see the God (the good) in the other. It would be a world in which we would all feel loved because we would all BE loved. That's the kind of world I want.