Well, the auction to raise some funds for the relief effort in Haiti has ended and $5000 was raised, which will be dispersed in the next day or so. In relative terms, it’s a small amount but it was the result of the donations of a handful of regular people, not Wall Street financiers . If this is happening all over the country, all over the world, it becomes a massive amount. An amount that can bring a suffering nation back to its feet. I think the thing that can be taken from this is that when small actions are tied together, great things can be achieved. It’s about creating an atmosphere of optimistic effort.
I wanted to write about how we could use this as a starting point to battle our natural tendencies towards cynicism, selfish greed and so many other negative traits that hinder us as a people. Intolerance. Schadenfreude. The negative region of our identity that is the playground for perennial negativists like Limbaugh and his ilk, whose incredible wealth is supported by keeping the masses apart. The last thing people like that want is any type of unity of spirit.
Their pessimism is an easy tonic to sell. Unfortunately. And all too many of us are ready to take a swig of this terrible tonic.
But I ‘ve already deleted two paragraphs. It’s too easy when examining such a subject to be sucked into the vortex of negativity these people espouse. All I will say is that nothing great has ever been achieved by such negative thinkers throughout history. Every great achievement has been accomplished despite these pessimists by people with vision and optimism, people who focused on broadening human possibility.
Hallelujah.
That being said, here’s one of my favorite versions of Leonard Cohen‘s wonderful composition, Hallelujah. It’s from the late Jeff Buckley. Powerful tonic…
Redtree Times 