Reflections on a Vote IV

This entry was inspired by my uncle, written in response to his “Reflections on a Vote I, II, and III.”

These days, I sit by a window, grey skies outside are illuminated by a distant sun. It is hard to imagine that the sun exists through the grey, convinced only by the light which flows and ebbs with the hour. How much time passes is a mystery, except for the light. Inside the window, I sit within beige, sterile walls. Carpet absorbs the sound of every footstep. I read a decade-old text, citing research one or two or more decades old. The text is still valid, despite its age. Little has changed.

These days, I glance about the room – anonymous faces focused similarly on texts, or computer screens. No one talks to anybody; we are in a library after all, but many are completely unaware of their surroundings. Focused on their media or plugged into their music. A cell phone rattles on the desk to indicate a text message received. Fingers move quickly over a keyboard while someone chats online. Correspondence without correspondence; we put on blinders to the people around us, yet find instant gratification in someone virtual. Much has changed.

These days, I put on my coat when the sun goes down, and I exit into a dark, anonymous world. I try to forget the challenges of my day, the knowledge lost in concepts misunderstood, from a text decades old. Anonymous faces pass me in the dark, and beyond those faces, rest in those minds, challenges beyond my own. Or, are they mine, too? While I sit, confined by sterile walls, among others in a virtual world, are not the challenges of men whose jobs were lost, elderly whose health has failed, babies whose voices were unheard, women and minorities whose lives were marginalized, and soldiers who live far, far away not my challenges, too? Are we not one world, one body? Are we not also victims when our brothers and sisters have been victimized? What is change, after all?

These days, I sit by a window, a day anew, and I think of how to be a steward of the earth and for others. How can I be a force for change?