I wasn't a Pink Floyd fan in high school. I figured it was mindless druggie music and went back to my oh-so-harmless Billy Joel and James Taylor (since they were pure as the driven snow). It's amazing the things you thought about as a teen ager and what those thoughts look like now.
A friend tricked me into listening to the song "Wish you were here" when I was in college - and I've never looked back.
Today's blog is not an ode to Pink Floyd, though. It's about an idea that was explained to me by another friend a few years later. The message contained in the song "On the Turning Away".
The fact that so many businesses are closing these days and that so many Americans are out of work is disturbing enough. Virtually every statistical model points to this situation getting much worse before it gets better. The more troubling idea is not the number of people affected...but the seeming indifference of those who are unaffected.
It also applies to the abused, the infirm, the disabled (if that term isn't PC enough I apologize) and the elderly.
When one of us suffers...we ALL suffer.
Here are some lyrics from "On the Turning Away":
On the turning away
From the pale and downtrodden
And the words they say
Which we won't understand
"Don't accept that what's happening
Is just a case of others' suffering
Or you'll find that you're joining in
The turning away"
How many times do people walk past those asking for a few coins in the street, convincing themselves as quickly as possible that the person they've just ignored was "scamming", "going to use the money for booze or drugs", or "probably the richest guy on the block". Chances are...they weren't any of those things. What you can be 100% sure of is the fact that the person was just that...a PERSON. With a STORY. With a FAMILY somewhere. Handing over a few cents won't change your life situation (most likely). The lyrics explain that we "don't understand". Most people are not too far from a situation where others have lost their means of support - how much do you really know about it, though?
It's a sin that somehow
Light is changing to shadow
And casting it's shroud
Over all we have known
Unaware how the ranks have grown
Driven on by a heart of stone
We could find that we're all alone
In the dream of the proud
We are in a condition nowadays where the segment of our society that has gone from "light" into "shadow" is growing faster than our consciousness will allow us to comprehend. It's as if the people still above the waterline give now though to the hole in the hull of the ship simply because their feet aren't wet. As some hearts grow harder, the pride that makes such indifference possible threatens us all. The percentages being announced every so often aren't just numbers. They are people. Real people with real problems that are part of OUR experience. OUR dna.
On the wings of the night
As the daytime is stirring
Where the speechless unite
In a silent accord
Using words you will find are strange
And mesmerized as they light the flame
Feel the new wind of change
On the wings of the night
Who are the flame lighters? It has always been innovators with bottomless hearts that make America special. When those hearts cease to feel the chill from the coldness in another person's life...we're in trouble from a philosophical AND actual standpoint. How we treat others establishes our moral foothold. 1.35 million American children are currently homeless. The collateral damage from this condition would astound you. Since they travel so frequently, their school records don't get sent with them quickly enough to register in school. They get deprived of educational opportunities which will hinder their ability to contribute later on. This creates a work force of under qualified people which worsens the productive climate for us all. This spiral has been going on for a couple of decades in earnest, and you see the result in clerks who cannot make change - just for a start.
No more turning away
From the weak and the weary
No more turning away
From the coldness inside
Just a world that we all must share
It's not enough just to stand and stare
Is it only a dream that there'll be
No more turning away?
Why must is be this way? The answer is that it DOESN'T have to be this way. You have holidays coming this season? So do I. My G-d sends a lesson along that we must help each other when we can with whatever we can. The same lesson was also taught to me and driven home by my father, my Rabbi, my brothers and sister, my wife, my children, my friends, my neighbors (the one down the street with that snowblower really comes to mind) and my seventh grade teacher...just to name a few.
When asked about his communal village (the Hindi word is "Ashram"), Gandhi said that it's simply a place where we can look after each other. He went on to explain the word "Ashram" can stand for a village, a home, or even the world.
This may be the season of miracles to many. To me, every waking moment is a season of miracles, and every other person is a member of my village. I will do what I can, where I am, for whoever needs it - to the best degree and depth I can muster.
"A person may cause evil to others not only by his actions but by his inaction" - John Stuart Mill
I've always believed what we do for ourselves provides momentary pleasure - but what we do for others extends the boundaries of the Universe farther into infinity.
Peas,
J
PS - Next blog will layout the corrective action needed to fix the entire world economy. It's not really that complicated.
