Apathy

The, well, not problem, but the thing about reading a lot is that you often find yourself reading several books at one time. In my case, fiction and non-fiction, at the same time, and then you find yourself making connections.

I'm reading Madeline L'Engle's Austin Series, and I'm in Book 3. And I'll blog a bit more about the books as a whole, but I think it's worth talking about Apathy. I'm listening to 3 religious characters, a Rabbi, a Methodist and an Anglican (which sounds like a joke and isn't) and I'm hearing them all say just about the same thing. Obedience is its own form of freedom and apathy is a sin.

A recent prescription change has left me very ill, needing to be close to my washroom, and I've been sitting at home. (And that's enough said about that, trust me)Effectively I have a book going in every room, and I get about 45 minutes, before my attention is distracted. I'm also reading Barbra Colorosso's book about Bullying, in which she talks about roles, and the roles we play and the roles we force our children into. She spends a fair bit of time talking about not just bullies and their victims, but about the bystanders who watch, and the options open to them. She talks about apathy as the main reason bullies have power. They have power because we don't care enough, we aren't skilled enough, to intervene. And then I'm reading through Colin Thatcher's defense that he didn't kill his wife. And a bit of PPZ.

As part of a whole thing on forgiveness, I've been thinking about apathy. I've been thinking about enough and going the extra mile, and just being a bystander. If I had a goal in life, it would be to never be a mere bystander. To stand up and be counted, to respond to my fellow human beings. To not give what is easy, what is convenient, what is 'just enough' but more. To involve myself in someone's life. To make time for others.

And I'm not particularly successful. I'm still self absorbed, wrapped up in my own life, but still, working on it.

A day spent, looking at the problem of apathy. It's not a bad way to spend it.

Word of the Day
Labia