So I have been kind of musing over relativity and what is important in general.
I am not sure why, probably just sleep deprivation again, but the MS Society walk gave me a lot of time to rattle things around in my head. The compelling images from that walk of a group of people who suffer, to varying degrees, with things we (and when I say that I mean ‘I’) dont have to deal with, just makes me wonder “What is important?”.
My kids think that important is getting your homework done enough that you can get back to watching cartoons. I should append that with Garrett’s rule of thumb “If there are legos to be played with, even if your pants are around your ankles, they MUST be played with.” In their world, these are the end all be all.
Over at Live Journal they are planning something they feel is very important:
Blog Action Day
This Monday, October 15th, is Blog Action Day, an initiative for bloggers
to unite and put a single important issue on people’s minds. This year’s
issue: The Environment. Participating is simple: Just write in your journal
as your normally would, but with the environment theme in mind. Find out
more ways to get involved with this experiment at the Blog Action Day
website.
Someone over at Live Journal feels strong enough about the environment, that they will interrupt the normal flow of blogg-dom, potentially crashing the internet, to raise public awareness. This coming on the tail of Al Gore winning the Nobel Peace Prize, for his inconvenient work on climate issues.
Over at the Brother Gecko site EXPLODING GECKO an important post.
The Golden Lady of Kirkuk
So the other day on my way to a suspect VBIED I noticed this statue:
I asked our terp Mike about it, he said it wasn’t an actual person, but a personification of freedom for women in Iraq. Pretty cool.
Apparently womens rights is important enough that they make a statue (and it hasnt been blown up or stolen) to represent it. Pretty damn important.
So what do I know is important? Stacey and the kids are important to me. My foot getting better is important. But I dont have any earth shaking issues that are important. Or if I do, I am too blind to see them. Maybe its the inner Boy Scout in me, wanting to do something to improve things. But nothing stands out as important.
Its a kind of “Wizard of Oz” moment, that when you wake up and nothing is going on that day for you. But you know there are important things going on. I dont intend to go off to Sri Lanka and dig up land mines, or build houses in New Orleans. I just need to get myself to remember important is relative. Like Garrett and Samantha said “I Love Rock and Roll, put another dime in the JUICE BOX Baby!”
Relative
