I don’t know how this post on People Matter will go today. I feel like I’m running late with writing even though it is still Friday when I’m writing. This is part of the Five Minute Friday word prompt group. 🙂 Check out Miss Kate’s post to read other posts on the prompt People.
Thoughts run through my head, making me question myself and others and some level of frustration creeps in. Making sense of it all is a struggle.
People Matter
I heard the other day
a gramma died,
and to be with extended family important.
But those they would leave at home.
Needed care.
The question to answer was
Which people matter?
Both matter but
sometimes choices need to be made.
We are told
BLACK lives matter.
That we MUST hear their stories.
We must understand.
We must choose to listen to
the Hard stories in order to understand.
But the question is this
Why?
I don’t need to listen to the full
story of my tenant.
She’s had a hard life,
with multiple bad things happening.
Yet, I don’t need to know her whole
past to love the person in front of me.
Do only the past lives
of People matter?
We can’t fix the past,
Even if we learn about it,
and better, learn from it.
People complain that
all of our history is white-washed.
No show of colour.
Or any colour shown is in
really poor light
or needing care.
I wonder if there is a reason for that.
That conquering nations always
show themselves in better light
than those they have conquered.
Does it mean white-washed,
or simply,
Pride in accomplishment,
or the need,
to make oneself look better?
Sometimes it’s just
one claims “conquering hero”
as a title.
Though part of me wonders
if perchance
it’s just a continued need
to protect the youngest
among us.
Sheltering young eyes from
the harsh realities of life?
Do young children really have to
know the horrors of residential schools
or the Trail of Tears?
Having to see,
REALLY see, what slavery means
to those enslaved, matter so?
Patterns begun in the past
are so easy to continue into the future.
It’s comfortable.
The brave and bold,
Will see a new path.
And hopefully with wisdom,
balance their conviction,
to the needs of the younger
Generations.
Protecting young minds,
because it’s true
People matter.
It is a struggle to make sense of it all and it is important that people are able to voice their thoughts and ask their questions – brave of you to try to explore in poetry, thank you for your honesty.
It is hard. I can’t always make sense of it all.
I appreciate the thoughtfulness, reflected in your post. Visiting from FMF.
thank you, I am trying. 🙂
Annette, do I matter?
I am so frightened…but are my tears just more salt, added to an ocean of pain?
Andrew, of course you matter, rest dear one, know you are held close to God’s heart. he will see you through this.
People do matter. People groups matter, and each individual person matters. And sometimes, as you shared, we feel like we have to decide that this one or that one matters more; and there are no easy answers. 🙁 We surely do need God’s wisdom and discernment – and so much grace! – to find the right balance. Good thoughts.
Such thought you put into this. Excellent.
Sometimes, in reference to your consideration of history, we have to quit living in the past because it colors or changes the future in poor ways and I think that is where we are at right now with history. Don’t change it; talk about it; learn about it. But quit living there and drudging it up as though it is still happening.
My 2 cents worth. Which isn’t much.
I agree. We need to stop living in the past or reinterpreting the past. We need to live in the now and future.