Why I Light a Candle in the Darkness
Mar. 3rd, 2009 12:54 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithSomeone I know recently lost a relative to suicide. The implications included depression exacerbated by the dire economic slump. I can understand being desperate enough to chew off one's leg to escape a trap, which is what suicide sometimes is. But it's a bitter and miserable thing to be left behind, because the survivors are the ones who have to clean up the mess, emotional and otherwise. So I sympathize with them too.
If you wonder why I write about some of the things I do -- about gender studies and identity and equality, about spirituality and tolerance, about economics and environment and saving the world, about family skills and communication and community -- it's because of things like this. Because I want the world to be a challenging but ultimately worthwhile place to live, that rewards honest work better than chicanery or indolence. Because I don't want it to be a place so devoid of hope and opportunity that desperate people in increasing numbers feel driven to smash the windows of their souls and crawl out through the shards into the everyonder.
We're working on it. Even if I have to walk into the wind with a hand cupped around my little candleflame, I would rather do that than merely sit and curse the dark, because even if it doesn't work, I'll be able to say I tried. And now and then, someone pauses to light a candle from mine ... or relight mine when it's gone out. We are sparks in the darkness. See how we shine.
If you wonder why I write about some of the things I do -- about gender studies and identity and equality, about spirituality and tolerance, about economics and environment and saving the world, about family skills and communication and community -- it's because of things like this. Because I want the world to be a challenging but ultimately worthwhile place to live, that rewards honest work better than chicanery or indolence. Because I don't want it to be a place so devoid of hope and opportunity that desperate people in increasing numbers feel driven to smash the windows of their souls and crawl out through the shards into the everyonder.
We're working on it. Even if I have to walk into the wind with a hand cupped around my little candleflame, I would rather do that than merely sit and curse the dark, because even if it doesn't work, I'll be able to say I tried. And now and then, someone pauses to light a candle from mine ... or relight mine when it's gone out. We are sparks in the darkness. See how we shine.
