It is past midnight and I should be asleep as I must wake up around 5ish for school.
Physical pain and worry seem to be keeping me awake.
So here are some late night thoughts, rather dark thoughts of a worried soul.
I have taught my students that there are some very basic themes in novels: Justice- Is it fair? Power? Who has it? Who wants it? Love- What does it look like and mean to the author? Truth- both internal truth of ones-self, and the external, eternal truths. What is real? Does it last?
Tomorrow, I will ask them to write about themselves, their themes, so that they can read them again in a year. Some will write, others will doodle which is okay, because sometimes the doodles tell me more than the words.
For me, I find that justice seems sorely lacking in the world today- at all levels. Paul tells me about the court system in general, and I find myself worrying about the poor underprivileged sitting in a jail cell. At school, I see how students are rewarded with A's because they cheat or their parents have power or are bullies. I see unfair treatment everywhere. There seems to be no truth.
When I learn a new computer application, I must have a touchstone, a place to return to when I become disoriented in the non-linear world of computers. It can be the dashboard, or the home page, whatever. The world seems to have lost it touchstone in my view. You need a lot of love and truth to wield power fairly and create justice. I see little love or truth lately.
Maybe I just need a vacation. ( :
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I, too, feel like I am often looking for justice and fairness in a world sorely lacking both. People tell me that I could go teach in a district with less poverty and fewer problems than where I was. But I can't. If I'm going to be in a classroom, I want it to be in a place where I can make the most difference. I've been very fortunate in my life, and I feel a responsibility to pay that fortune back. (Of course, now I HAVE left a classroom completely, which causes twinges of guilt on a weekly basis.
ReplyDeleteI'm not entirely decided on the desirability of "cosmic justice". But justice in terms of to what degree society's rules and institutions (which encompasses the actions of society's members, including those with positions of authority) are applied "fairly" (e.g. without irrational/personal bias -- like differences in treatment based on immutable or irrelevant characteristics) sounds like on the whole a pretty good thing. As to how much there is ... it might be protesting a little too much to say that things are getting more just, but it's certainly believable to make that claim in certain areas. That's heartening.
ReplyDeleteI'm not going to start an argument about race on your blog, which is principally about adorable pictures of animals, but shifting focus to another kind of unjust treatment I agree with you that wealth-based prejudice seems pretty pervasive.
(Then again, a flame war -would- drive up the comment count...QUICK SOMEONE POST ABOUT ABORTION)