Let's rethink this concept of saving the world. Can we see things realistically without becoming cynical?
Realizing something’s off.
Trying to solve the problem.
Figuring some things out and wanting to share your findings with others.
Not being successful.
Getting hurt in the process.
Realizing something’s off.. ⟲
The concept of saving the world; or thinking you can.
Knowing it takes ① thing: LOVE
Then realizing it’s not that simple & is a bit more complex.
Some don’t want love…just yet.
Sometimes you don’t really know love after all and get tore up
trying to save the world.
Sometimes love is conditional, too.
Sometimes love doesn’t want to save you
Ishmael Reed speaks directly to these sentiments in his poem:
“The Author Reflects on His 35th Birthday”
35? I have been looking forward
To you for many years now
So much so that
I feel you and I are old
Friends and so on this day, 35
I propose a toast to
Me and You
35? From this day on
I swear before the bountiful
Osiris that
If I ever
If I EVER
Try to bring out the
Best in folks again I
Want somebody to take me
Outside and kick me up and
Down the sidewalk or
Sit me in a corner with a
Funnel on my head
Make me as hard as a rock
35, like the fellow in
The story about the
Big one that got away
Let me laugh my head off
With Moby Dick as we reminisce
About them suckers who went
Down with the Pequod
35? I ain’t been mean enough
Make me real real mean
Mean as old Marie rolling her eyes
Mean as the town Bessie sings about
“Where all the birds sing bass”
35? Make me Tennessee mean
Cobra mean
Cuckoo mean
Injun mean
Dracula mean
Beethovenian-brows mean
Miles Davis mean
Don’t-offer-assistance-when
Quicksand-is-tugging-some-poor
Dope-under-mean
Pawnbroker mean
Pharaoh mean
That’s it, 35
Make me Pharaoh mean
Mean as can be
Mean as the dickens
Meaner than mean
When I walk down the street
I want them to whisper
There goes Mr. Mean
“He’s double mean
He even turned the skeletons
In his closet out into
The cold”
And 35?
Don’t let me trust anybody
Over Reed but
Just in case
Put a tail on that
Negro too
February 22, 1973
“No good deed goes unpunished.” - Proverb
Haven’t we all experienced this? Doing a favor only to get burned in the end. Like dropping a friend off at the airport before work, only to catch a flat tire on your way back.
I never understood this one. Why should I be punished for doing a good deed?
Overextending ourselves for others can leave us drained in the end. We can take on some problems of the world, but the need to solve them ends up seeming like a joke..
The only responsibility we truly have is to ourselves, since we are reflections of the source from which we all come. Seems like taking care of yourself covers all the bases.
Reminder to self: It’s not one individual’s job to save the world..
Instead, tapping into oneself is probably the most direct way to affect any substantial change.
Of course, the end resolve is not to stop doing good things for others, but to prioritize your wellbeing above all. Radically loving yourself and figuring out what that means to you is saving the world.