Good intentions?

‘’the road to hell is paved with good intentions’’

By the nuns and fathers

Who saw a dire need to do good

Jesus was brought to the savages

Indians that needed saving

Indians that needed to be civiziled

That’s why they ripped them of their kids

Put them in schools

That tortured them

Killed them

So, they could go to heaven

A civilized heaven full of good intentions and a white Jesus.

We needed to provide protein for our families

That why we killed the kids of others

So that we can feast on their protein

That’s probably why the colonialists

Stole our spices and jewels

Made us slaves

because they needed the spice to

Preserve their meat for long winter months

And feed their families

We give to charity

To do good and feel good

But do we feel good and that’s why we do good

Is that why we flash a camera

In the face of a hungry man

For whom consent is the least of his worries

But a right to his dignity

We strip a man of their respect

By giving a fraction of a fraction

Of a salary

Through which we live like kings

How noble of us

The world is round,

Not a box,

Things flow in this world

We are not bound by walls

We create them

We create communities

By words that separate us to them

I exclude you

Us exclude them

That’s maybe why we pollute the world

It flows as someone else’s problem

How many have lost their lives in the name of nations

Merely a factual concept, peons in the game of hoarding resources

When the world is divided, separated, distinctly named

There is no place for everyone at the table

Our world is not merely changed by intentions but by actions

That are fuelled by the imagination that create the world

Where there are villains and heroes

A stark divide

That paint the world in black and white.

If we want to change the world, ask the world does it need changing

If we want to help, ask those that need, how we can help them

If we want to care for another, ask them how they need to be cared for

If we want to live, ask others if our lifestyle is encroaching upon their right to life.

If we speak, ask other is our words hurt, divide, judge or condemn

Intentions are born of our language, environment, culture, resources, history

Whether they are good or bad is asking whether the world is in black or white

But when the light shines in, everything is made of color with each sunrise

Critical cultural relativism looks at why, who, and to whom does it serve our practices.

Does it serve one or all?

A home is made whole when all its members are united in their differences.

Differences that challenge our egos’ that maybe just maybe we do not know everything

And knowing that might make us a little us sure of ourselves.

But when our ground is shaken, do we not hold the hand of another to find our balance?

And would that be such a bad thing after all to not know everything and learn a little something everyday so that we are together in our uncertainty as we go through life?