What do we value?

Traveling for work, stepping from plane to shuttle to rental life and back I feel like an interloper from another world.

Excess surrounds me. Have a lot of money? Indulge in novelty like matching accessories or unnecessary doodads that I'm sure will look stunning in a landfill someday.

The buzz of conversation, boasts of spending money on frivolous things while whining about inability to pay one's own rent, and let's politely ignore that person layered up in stained shame outside sets me on edge.

What do we value? Cheap, novel goods overpriced and advertised in ways to feed our already oversized egos? Is this really who we've become? Toddlers with expense accounts in adult bodies?

Do we value each other or do we look at each other as steps to stand on and grind down with sharp judgements?

If we valued ourselves then we wouldn't choose to buy into a shallow, narcistic, self absorbed culture. Wouldn't we care more about appearances beyond the layers of makeup and tedious pop songs about getting screwed up and fucked?

It is hard to listen to boasts of waste, couched in immature terms when I see the faces of those living in another America. The voices of those who stand at the edge holding onto what others consider outdated moral codes are loud but to the multitude they are static, to some politicians they are silent. They are helping, feeding, caring. They are Americans I am honored to be proud of.  Roll down your window, you'll hear them. I share a post on homelessness and two people acknowledge it, I see posts on time wasting, ego feeding garbage and it's been shared thousands of times. Those two people, they're giants of amazing beauty in my world. Those people trying to support those without, those humans- they are incredible. You should aspire to be one or if you are one, you know how much I appreciate you. Thank you.

I'm tired. Language is gagging me. You're beautiful. No, let's be honest. You look like you. Sometimes you look great, sometimes you don't. You're amazing. Let's be honest. Amazing is climbing Everest. I'm not even amazing. I'm tenacious, stubborn, blunt, aggressive and outgoing. I'm as gregarious as a summer day with the potential of storms or beauty or both. I'm unique. You're unique. Just like everyone else and there's millions of us. We've got to get over our need to be the special snowflake. Reality is there are millions and in the end they all melt away leaving a brief memory if that. It's harsh. It's true and it's past time we face it.

What do we value? Do we really value each other? Are we really caring or only when it's easy or there's publicity? Are we truly parasites feeding off each other, choosing to inflate prices and profits to become rich? Why do we put the rich on pedestals when many got there by stepping on and ruining others as well as traumatically wounding our environment?

We claim to love puppies and kitties but we don't get our fixed and thousands are inhumanly killed at shelters every day. Out of sight, out of our mind, and someone else's problem because "OMG did you see the new ******"  A friend died this year because of a treatable infection. I had months of dialogue, trying to connect him with help. Him falling through holes. Him in pain. Him alone. In pain. Posting from another friend that he was dying, dying, gone. It's unreal. Talk about something you don't need but dropped hundreds on. I see his dead face. You should too. Remember being human and caring for each other first?

What kind of world are we shaping?

I live in two world. I step out of an airplane among Elloi then walk back around the corner among the morlocks. My face doesn't change. I'm in the same skin. Both acknowledge me as if I were kin.

A shuttle driver warned me last night I was staying in a dangerous hotel. I thanked him and told him good. When someone needs help, I'll be in the right place. He actually paused at the next intersection and looked at me. He said I was right and more people should. I told him, it's a choice I make to be human not ruled by money or appearances. It's about doing what's right and taking it with you where you go. It's not always easy and it's not glamorous. It is the American I choose to be.

So I'll ask again, what do you value? If you stepped outside yourself and heard yourself would you be proud or embarrassed? Why are we so bent on being shallow? 

Beauty isn't the packaging, it's what is inside and how we choose to live.

Next time you get a chance step into another world, a world that exists in this one. One that's real and ugly. One that reminds you you are normal, average, one of millions. Unremarkable and soon forgotten. Now go forward. Become something more through your actions not your purchases or peacocking.

Disposable Society

Welcome to a disposable world. Friends come as easy as a button click on Facebook, they go just as easily. Bedding the wrong color? Need to match the blender and the microwave? Does your child need every new plastic toy that comes along? Can you focus on anything for longer than five minutes without getting restless? Do you feel powerless, depressed and driven to want things as if things could make that feeling flee?

Welcome to a disposable world, where we are disposable people. We feel we are worth more than we are paid, we feel we need the money, we need the debts, we need what?

I spent yesterday afternoon appreciating the beauty of Oak Flats Campground. According to Resolution Mining Company the ground there will be stable for maybe ten to twenty years. They intend the ground to be stable at Apache Leap, but they are being trusted to monitor that themselves. Mines that regulate themselves contaminate and destroy water supplies, history has a long list of examples. Go ahead, drink tap water in Bisbee. I dare you. Laugh and call me an alarmist, just keep drinking that tap water so I can sing your eulogy.

It's alright, I know escapism is more important to you. It's someone else's responsibility, right? Since we're on a downward spiral, why does it matter? It will only matter when we realize we've gone past the point of no return. Our garbage lines streets in India, ocean fish populations are pillaged and not nurtured to be maintained or protected. We live in a world where it's about me and today. Egocentric, narcissistic and without any meaningful value.

What can we do to change?

Stop listening to the ads. Stop supporting marketing campaigns. Stop buying things you do not need. Instead of spending time playing games and running away from reality, face it.

Teach your children to be responsible. Teach them to value what they need rather than become addicted to wanting. Start going without wants, focus on recognizing needs and meeting the real needs you have. Chart your own course, take responsibility for your role in this world. Don't like your job? Change jobs. Don't like how you are treated, start communicating better and acknowledge your own role in where you are at.

Reach out to others who are choosing freedom and reality. The time for games is over, it is time for us all to grow up. We are not as important as we think we are.

What we leave as a legacy are our children and the world. When we destroy mountains, wipe out species through the drive for shallow and temporary profits, we demonstrate that we are a pathetic and short sighted species that can do no better than destroy ourselves, fight each other over differences in intangible philosophies, and justify our own deprivation.

When I look at the beautiful places, undisturbed by man I wrestle, wanting to explore but wanting to leave those places untouched for nature to continue as always has been without interruption. My desire to be there is not as important as the lives that unfold there.

We really need to get over the idea that we are all special. We are not all princesses and princes. We are a bunch of whiny, irresponsible, inconsiderate, hypocritical, weak children dressed like adults. Willpower? Ability to resist impulses?

We can start by doing our own research. Eating healthy and exercising, planning your life to address your long term goals. What goals do you have? How do you want to be remembered? What legacy will you leave, beyond reaching a fictitious skill level in a fabricated game?

I support saving Oak Flat Campground and Devil's Canyon. I support preserving Apache Leap.

I support the Clean Water Campaign.

I value the world, the future enough to say it is past time to stop sitting and tuning out the warning cries of a world being roughly raped and pillaged. It is past time for us to realize that we're on antidepressant medication to take the edge off, because we've let things go to far. We've given up our power to corrupt, wealthy politicians and corporations. They shape our lives. Why?

Escapism and "being free in your head" are the answers a child would give living in an abusive environment. It alarms me how many people live as adults that way. I've always been the one that stands to take the hit and strike back. I will call it as I see it. I accept responsibility for my words, actions, choices. I gave up games. I'm playing at a higher level, and I'm playing for a free future in a healthy world.

Together, thousands of us can change things. We boycott buying unnecessary goods. We start gardens, farms and community support. We meet our neighbors. We accept that technology is fostering complacency and apathy in us. We choose to change. We set goals and we relearn healthy habits and choices.

Needs: food, shelter, water.
Wants: plastic doodads, cartoon themed sets, accessories, how many digital devices do you need?

Getting what you want doesn't fill the void inside you, only learning to listen and love yourself as is can fill that void. Stop perpetuating an abusive society rife with shallow self delusion. Accept responsibility, start prioritizing and take the wheel. If you squander this life you do not get another one.

Or, go ahead, disregard my words and be a disposable person in a society of disposable people.