My mind has been preoccupied with two things lately, humanity and the struggle between want and need. Topics probably as old as time. Caveman Al had to decide if he should share his 2 bedroom 1.5 bath cave with Caveman Bob for the winter. Should he renovate that extra room into a home theatre room with a wet bar and a competition sized dartboard or should he see past his own wants and give shelter to his fellow cro-magnon brother from another mother?
Tran Duv Van – Jeff Wall (exhibit travels to SFMOMA Oct-Jan, i smells roadtrip!)
Ahhh the dilemmas of the have, about what to do with all them have-nots. Hugo said, “There is always more misery in the lower classes than humanity in the higher.” Didn’t all the high class folks start start somewhere amongst the lower class? Didn’t the white collar have humble beginnings as a blue collar aka the working class. When and how did that bridge to a better place, be it measured financially, materialistically, or intelectually, become a distant chasm remembered with shameful disdain? I have alot of long winded guesses but I don’t know why for sure.
I think I know why humanity has been a topic of cogitation lately. I have a fear of being a yuppie (you know i love yous). Yuppie to me means in part, the lost of my humanity. A new level of self-satisfying that will take me farther and farther from the things that matter in my life and to other life in general. To quote another great artist and humanist (never thought i would but hey i never thought they would make squeeazable mayo either), Bono, “Our humanity is diminished when we have no mission bigger than ourselves.” I am trying to sharpen my views on the concept of humanity by refracting my own life’s missions. Does how i am living my life now diminishing my humanity? After some thinking (which has been best done while brushing my teeth, washing dishes, and walking Tiki) I am starting to ponder my need for another’s needs. Not meeting another’s needs but a sincere interest and concern for someone else’s because they are a fellow human being. I don’t just “want” to care because of my faith, my mom, society, or any other source of inculcation. I can’t deny that they have shaped my humanity but I want them to resonate with my innate humanity which is in someways interconnected with my spirtuality.
Conclusions? Don’t think I am there yet or really have any real intentions on getting there. I am just laying out the pieces of a landscape jigsaw puzzle out on the table. Humanity is kinda like the blue, white, and gray puzzle pieces that make up the horizon. Its easy to connect them to the browns and greens of the earth but difficult to connect to each other.
Soundtrack of Mi Vida: Here It Comes Again – Tracey Thorn