Unravelling

I started working night shifts doing security for a nursing/retirement home. So my sleep pattern is non existent and i haven't really had time to do much else other than eat and sleep. I usually have a lot of free time during the nights, it's a 12 hour shift and at most i have 5 hours of work, so i get a lot of reading done.

I've been reading a book by Mother Theresa called "no greater love" nothing has really grabbed me about it, she's basically just preaching selflessness to the point where you choose poverty and therefore can relate to and begin to help the poor. There is one part that really grabbed me though:

" When i pick up a hungry person from the street, i give him rice and bread, and i have satisfied that hunger. But a person who is shut out, feels unwanted by society, unloved and terrified - how much more difficult is it to remove the hunger?

You in the West have the spiritually poorest of the poor much more than you have the physically poor. Often among the rich are very spiritually poor people. I find it is easy to give a plate of rice to a hungry person, to furnish a bed to a person who has no bed, but to console or to remove bitterness, anger, and loneliness that comes from being spiritually deprived, that takes a long time."

There's a lot of truth in that statement, you look at our society, we have so much but we have so little. Our immense wealth is able to mask our downfalls, it doesn't take much to see it and if you look closely you can see every bit of structure in our culture and our society rotting. It hasn't collapsed yet, but I'm not sure how much longer a society that is as empty as we are can stand on its own two feet. I guess we're staggering pretty hard now.

All you have to do is look at history and it will show you what happens to a society that rises to the top, eventually it falls to the bottom. Thousands of years ago these collapses took hundreds maybe even thousands of years, but with the acceleration of technology and rapid movement of social systems these collapses can happen much quicker.

I guess looking at North American you could say the pendulum was set swinging in Europe with all the political turmoil and social hardships many of our ancestors had to endure, current generations in North American are so far removed from that struggle that it doesn't mean anything to us anymore. We just let government and the corporations do whatever they please and as long as it doesn't affect our bottom line we don't seem to care.

All of this connects to being empty inside, our pockets and our bank accounts are full but our minds and hearts are empty. I think it's up to the ones who are bitter, angry, socially neglected, and oppressed to make a change. People who are accepted aren't desperate enough.

I'm not sure how this all connects and i don't really care, it makes sense somehow. There's a song by Rise Against off of their first and best record called The Unravelling, it sort of speaks to what I'm saying here, even if it doesn't this song is incredible, lyrically and musically. The Unravelling is one of my favorite records of all time, so much raw emotion and intensity. The few times i saw this band live while they were touring for this record were unbelievable. I know they've gotten insanely popular and even though i don't really like their last two records I'm happy for them, the lyrics are still meaningful, the music just got a little more tame.

Anyway here's the song:

"The Unraveling"

and all these things that we tie together

keep unraveling apart

and the light that used to burn so bright

now is dark

with anger-laced intent we set fire

to the bridges that remain

and they're wading through the current now.

and they drown in the flood of the tears

that have been wept

and i scream to the sky

"no, you are not alone..."

if you think that your words will ever make a difference

think again and carry on

because the weight behind the hand that holds us is strong

but there is hope in the roar of a thousand pleading cries

and all these things that we tie together

the sound of their tongues being bitten

is all I hear

as we fire at the whites of theirs eyes then

dance on ashes of the world

as they drown in the flood of the tears

that have been wept

and their tongues being bitten

is all that I can hear

as I scream to the sky,"I need you now..."

can you feel this truth now unraveling?

or will you chase the burning sun

into the sea.