The world I live in
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The world I live in
Each of us creates a space around us that is the world we live in.
We have our homes, our families, our work, our friends. We have a way we travel to work, by car or train, or we may walk down the hallway from one room to another to work. We have children we raise, and schools we take them to. We have shops we love, and shops we must frequent for food or supplies. We go online and visit favourite sites. We watch TV or stream our favourite shows or movies.
We, through our choices and our situations, create the space that is the world we live in.
Add to our personal world the larger world we live in.
Open any newspaper to view the latest flood, fire, murder, war, corporate corruption, failure of the health system, domestic violence, cancer statistics and so on. All of these make up the world we live in.
But there is another world we now all live in. The world known via any social media platform.
We live in a world where pornography is widespread, accessible and normal. Where young children can be lured into sexual or abusive circumstances by fake online profiles. Where high school students share photos of private body parts as a norm.
We live in a world where children believe they want to change their gender through surgical procedures and drugs. Where trans-activists fight for the right to rewrite history, redefine language, and behave indecently at whatever location they see fit as their right.
We live in a world where there is a name (Karen) for an entitled white woman who rages at another whom she sees does not fit in the world she lives in. The root cause of “Karen’s” rage, and reasonableness of it, is never questioned. After all, she has been reduced to a … “Karen”. What is the name for a man who abuses his wife I wonder, given the issue of domestic violence shows no signs of abating?
We live in a world where cities have rates of murder via gunshot that is unheard of in recorded history. Where mass shootings at schools no longer shock us. Where more people die at their own hand through gun-related suicide than ever before[1]. One study states that half of the people who live in Chicago have witnessed a shooting by the time they are middle aged[2].
We live in a world where alcohol is an acceptable drug, promoted on billboards by highly desired celebrities, regardless of the proven and documented fact that it is a major contributor in road deaths, health issues including those that cause death, and domestic violence. We know alcohol causes all of these things, but we drink it anyway.
We live in a world where television and streaming of shows and movies dominate the at home lives of almost every family. Where consumption of fake drama is prioritised over conversation between family members at dinner. Where a life without TV at night is seen as literally unliveable.
The list of the unending craziness of the world we all live in goes on and on, but mine and your participation in the craziness of this world does not need to.
In our home at night, we eat together, every day. There is no music, and no TV to interrupt our time together. We have the wondrous company of one another. We invite those who also choose to live in a way that is not of the world, to our home. We share our table, our food and our world we live in with others. We often walk after dinner if the weather is fine. The youngest member of our household loves her time outside after dinner, even though she is not even old enough to speak.
In the world I live in work is a privilege. The place I work, the people I work with, are a giant part of something we all come together on. I work in IT, but the work we do is not about IT, it is about what the IT provides, and that is a grand purpose. We receive income for our work, but that is not why we work.
I work because I am alive, and while ever I am alive I will work. My work is not just a place where I am employed, my work is wide-ranging, from tending to our home, to building new businesses, to writing this article.
In the world I live in, I don’t live to retire early, I live to work in absolute joy.
In the world I live in it matters not if you are a man or a woman, if you are freckled or clear skinned, if you are tall or short, if you are old or young, if you are black or white. If you do a job, you get paid for that work, not your gender. If you do not provide a service you agreed to, you are called out firmly and clearly. If you are abusive, you will no longer be part of the world I live in. You and I will not occupy the same space.
In the world I live in I am responsible for my health. I live in a way that provides a foundation of health. If I am unwell, I seek medical treatment, but I do not plant my issues at the door of a doctor and ask them to take responsibility for me.
In the world I live in social media holds no power. It is a tool to connect with colleagues, and maybe old friends. Its trends do not influence me. Its influencers demonstrate nothing other than the world I do not partake of.
I am black and white about truth, and about the world I live in. I will never falter in the knowing that the giant world I live in may be fraught with horrendous disturbance, obvious insanity that is now treated as normal, and distraction from being alive through any number of ways that belies intelligence, but I do not need to live according to that.
I have the power, as do you, to live in the world I live in, and not have the world and the way it is live within me.
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