Thoughts and Prayers
how ill does one have to be
to deserve healing prayers
I don’t mean those blanket
‘thoughts & prayers are with you’
but more specific ones
where names mentioned
conditions identified
not prayers for healing either
but for the strength to survive
for gentleness
<>
no one knows
what will work
what will kill
what the cost might be
when quality of life
is a balancing act
what do we sacrifice
hopes, prayers or opportunity
for change
<>
is it worth it
do I want to be a brain
without a body
do I want to transcend the body
to live on memory
to distance from touch
so I can … what …
yes I want to be healed
even though I am well
unless age is a disease
the same way language is a virus
is being human
the issue
is immortality the cure
not thoughts & prayers
I am tried of the standard response of different levels of government, of people who get media attention for their utterances regardless of their relationship to the issue – like who really cares what a Kardashian thinks of the earthquake in ….. It’s not as if anyone is going to say – ‘they deserved it.’
I don’t know what the ‘solution’ for mass murders in the USA is, but it’s clear that ‘thoughts & prayers’ isn’t the way to go. Neither is making teachers & students take gun handling classes. Here in Toronto After a recent rash of assaults here in Toronto I’m waiting for H&M to start marketing kevlar lined sports wear for taking public transit or just walking home after a movie. Thoughts & prayers aren’t going to protect me & aren’t going to pay my hospital bills after the fact. Actually here in Ontario those would be covered already. But in the USA, if you are not properly insured, the victim pays for treatment. Stabbed in the street during a robbery = $100,000.00 for treatment. Hospitals will not accept your thoughts & prayers as payment.
Some people are suffering for attention- literally. Not to diminish anyone’s pain or trauma but often we get so mired in it there are often conversations, relationships, built on comparing the degree of our hurts. At a recent gathering at least three people spent most of time comparing their experiences in hospitals. Almost competing to see whose was the worst/best.
‘How’s the weather? Let me tell you this damp makes my hips ache so I can hardly walk.’
It’s not that I am different to the war on the Ukraine, to the poaching of endangered animal species but I am numbed by the fact that there is no sense of change. Change would cost the wrong people profits – but they can afford a press agent to write a release about their thoughts & prayers. Imagine what Musk’s $300 billion loss could do that those thoughts & prayers can’t. I don’t really care, I’m only blogging this for likes & reposts.
TOpoet 