Taken from My Journal –
Drinking coffee is routine. Wake up. Drink coffee. As routine as walking to class, sitting in lecture, or eating breakfast. This morning I’m drinking coffee was sitting on the couch, watching CNN. Nothing unusual. It’s just me in this room. On the news there’s there story of a firefighter who is suffering from immeasurable burns. His entire life has been rotated, shifted and transformed from one event. And I’m just here drinking my coffee, going about my normal, routine day. In the time it will probably take me to finish my coffee, numbers of people will have died, and more will have been born, wars are being fought and animals are being hunted and someone in a different city, in a different country is enjoying a routine cup of morning coffee. It’s strange and out of body to think about all the things occurring in the world at this moment. Distracted. I am distracted by myself and my own small community. If only it were possible to witness what is going on through the eyes of everyone on the planet. How strange that we are so distanced from each other, barely recognizing the existence of many outside our small circles, yet so connected through modern media. As I sip my coffee there are hundreds in India who have traveled miles to a well to find water, only to find none. I feel more guilt than appreciation. I wish I could share. We all share a planet, why can’t we all share its resources? This seems unfair, to the cruelest extent. Why should come benefit while others perish? We are one species, humanity is one, and we share one planet. Why can’t we look out for one another? Since when did we decide that the lives of some are of more value than the lives of others? A twisted approach to classic Darwinism? If the point of a species is to protect the longevity of the species, and create future posterity and if Darwinism is that the strongest of a species will survive and be more adaptable to changes in the environment, than why are we as a society creating drastic changes in our environment which threaten our species and allow for fewer and fewer of us to become adaptable to this environment?