The Prettiness Of It All

Sometimes, I am struck by the prettiness of all that surrounds me. I am quite lucky to be born in a time where I have rights and born in a country where I have clean water, food, and shelter. I could have easily been born in another decade or century and in a country where I have to fight to live or watch my kids grow up to the ripe age of 12 with the real threat of death hanging over their heads.

As I scroll through Facebook, salivating over delectable plates my foodie friends have posted, it strikes me how pretty my life is. 

Of course I know this - but  somedays it strikes home more closely. As I continue to scroll, I curse when my newsfeed becomes less than pretty - another post about some reprobate who repeatedly slamming a puppy’s head against the ground and killing it. Then some friends over in Tel Aviv post photos of soldiers fighting in Gaza - graphic ones.  Ones I bet most of you don’t see. I actually have to translate the Hebrew to read them. The pictures are ugly. Filled with bruising, swelling, blood, and pain. Pain that I pray to God neither you or I ever come close to experiencing.

My granddaddy fought in the Second World War - he was a pilot before the war, but due to his imperfect vision was placed in the tank division. His buddy opened the tank door one day to look out and his head was blown off. It rolled down into the tank next to my granddaddy's feet. This affected my granddaddy deeply for the entirety of his life. He was never really able to talk about his experiences in the war for more than a few minutes - and it was usually followed by a very somber mood and some tears in his eyes. He saw a lot of ugliness and pain.

The scrolling continues and finally, the pretty stuff comes back.  I laugh at a silly little cartoon, smile at my friend’s status update about volunteering with Hospice patients and start to cheer up again.  A couple of friends are expecting babies - and their status updates are filled with joy and happiness. But I can’t seem to shake the feeling of pretty off.  Of course, the barrage of dog rescues that I subscribe to doesn’t help - another story of a man setting his grandma’s cat on fire, another dog attack towards a child (The owners of the dogs trained them to protect their DRUG operation is a fact conveniently forgotten) and more posts filled with incredible hatred about those kids coming across our borders and stealing resources from us.

Would you hide?

My heart is heavy as I wonder how many of us just surround ourselves with the prettiness which we have been so lucky to been born into without foraying into some of the ugliness.  I wonder if we didn’t hide the ugliness behind walls if it would change how we act.  

If you could see...

If you could see what war is like, would you still want to participate in it?

If you could see what the euthanasia room is like in the animal shelter, would you still allow rampant breeding?

If you could see what its like in an animal slaughter house, would you change how you ate?


If you could see what it’s like in the most dangerous cities on earth, would you not try to give your kids a better life? 

Compassion?

If you could see some of these things, would it change your level of compassion? Would it make you ask why these things happen? Spark a little critical thinking? Would it spur you to get off the couch and stop complaining? 

Would it make you DO something?