One of the things they don't tell us about aging is that we start losing our vocabulary. It's part of the ugly underbelly of aging. And it's very easy for us to lose our train of thought. I was just thinking about my next blog while ago, and decided what topic I wanted to cover, and then walked into the kitchen. By the time I got back to the computer room I had completely forgotten it and had to back track my train of thought. Sheesh.
I watched the movie "Slumdog Millionaire" yesterday. It was hard to watch. Harrowing. I felt so bad for the Indian children and the things they had to endure—no child should have to go through things like they did, and yet I know from what I've read similar things actually happen all over the world.
In London, England, up until about 1850, orphaned street children were subjected to many of the same kinds of things portrayed in "Slumdog". Charles Dickens saw the plight of some of them and wrote books about what he saw, notably "Oliver Twist", which helped galvanize the public against some of the worst crimes against the poor and helpless. I read one time (can't remember where) that sometimes some of the more unsavory criminals would literally carve the faces of street children to make them either more pitiful, thus better beggars, or to attract more money as street performers. I don't know what kind of paths people go down that make them capable of doing these kinds of things. What must their own lives have been like? Brutal. Must have been.
There was also a book written in 1970 by R. F. Delderfield, "God is an Englishman", that has a scene I remember vividly. The book is set in the 1850's, and the main female character, Henrietta, discovers one of their fireplaces is stopped up, and sends a servant to fetch a chimney sweep. Seems innocent enough.
But, as was often the case in those days, the chimney sweep uses a small boy to climb up and down the chimney to clean it. As was also often the case in those days, the child dies during the course of the cleaning. Henrietta and the servant are understandably upset over the death, but when Henrietta's husband Adam comes home and discovers the matter, he is furious.
Adam is a character much to be admired. He is horrified by the many social injustices he observes daily, and he is completely disgusted that Henrietta didn't know what terrible fates awaited the children used by sweeps. He catalogs for her a list of things the sweep boys endured.
Besides lung diseases caused by breathing the noxious fumes built up in the chimneys, they often fell or got wedged inside and suffocated. Add to this the fact the boys were usually fed very little, to keep down their weight. And they were often abused in other ways by the sweeps.
When the boys grew too large to fit into the chimneys, the sweeps simply cast them aside and found another, smaller boy to use. By the time a boy had outgrown the job, he usually had diseased lungs and couldn't work at any honest job, so he often had no option but to turn to a life of crime. If he lived long enough, he often ended up in prison.
The way Adam chooses to deal with his wife's ignorance and insensitivity is, in my opinion, harsh. He makes her and her servant wash and prepare the boy's body for burial. As they carry out Adam's order, they are horrified by the ravages on the poor child's body. It was indeed harsh punishment, but it was also a lesson neither of them ever forgot. Nor have I.
I believe we are sheltered by our ignorance of the injustices of our own society, just as Henrietta was sheltered by her ignorance of the plight of the sweep boys. If we don't see something, we can pretend it never happened. Books written by people like Charles Dickens forced people to open their eyes and look at the injustices surrounding them. Once we look, we can no longer pretend we don't see.
Today there is a wealth of information all over the internet about social injustices. Here are a few sites that will open your eyes:
If you know of others, please let me know. I'll add them to the list.
My daughter Amber told me she couldn't read my blog any more because every post made her cry, and she was tired of crying. I didn't realize how dark the things I was writing about had gotten. So I'm going to have to lighten up. In my own defense I have to say there are a lot of really sad and horrible things going on in the world right now. But in Amber's defense, I suppose I don't have to chronicle them each and every day.
With that in mind, here's one of my favorite jokes:
A string goes into a bar and orders a beer. The bartender says, "We don't serve strings in here."
The dejected string leaves, but outside he has an idea. He rubs his top end until it it's all frayed, then ties himself into a knot. He returns to the bar and orders a beer.
The bartender says, "Say, aren't you that string that was just in here?"
The string replies, "No, I'm a frayed knot." Word play. Think about it.
Today's quote: "There is a higher court than courts of justice and that is the court of conscience. It supersedes all other courts." -- Mohandas Gandhi
The mug I'm drinking from has the music and words to all four verses of "Amazing Grace" wrapping around it. Today's tea is gunpowder. It gets its name from its color, not from any explosive quality. It's a green tea, and my absolute favorite tea. I drink it when I need a lift for any reason. And sometimes I drink it "just because". Today is a "just because" day.
Regardless of what time you may read this, God bless you, and have a great rest of the day. If the day is almost over, have a great tomorrow.
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