Day Five

It's easy to pretend something isn't there if we simply look away. You know the saying, "the elephant in the room?" It's nothing short of miraculous how we are able to see past a giant elephant's ass when we are determined enough to ignore it.

Humans have ignored problems since the beginning of time. Why? Because sometimes we just don't like what we see.

Lawrence Hill wrote in The Book of Negroes: "To gaze into another person's face is to do two things: to recognize their humanity and to assert your own." It's way easier to detach from people when we look away, or by way of technology (through texts, Facebook messages and emails), than if we were standing there with them, face to face, heart to heart. We can unleash the devil in lightening speed if we are merely one step removed.

I heard a story about an obese lady who went to the ER for something and when the doctor walked into the room he could barely breathe for the stench coming from the woman's body. Upon examination he found that maggots had settled in between her moist fat folds. He asked her if she knew about them and she said no, and when he asked her how she could not notice, she replied blankly, "I just had no idea."

She didn't want to know, so she didn't look.

I know of a more recent story involving someone close to my heart. This time the maggots came in the form of legal papers carrying with them the diseases of hate and selfish gain. Handed over to him in a blow so personal, at the very essence of his person as a man, as a daddy, he sunk to his knees with the force.

I can't talk about it because of the nature of the situation, but I know from being open with others in similar circumstances that the legal system has no mercy, for fathers in particular. Why? There's probably a myriad of reasons. But I highly doubt that this shit would go down if each person stood together, face to face. Instead we are served with legal papers, shipped from one vulturous lawyer to another where they finally land in our hands, merciless eating away our minds and hearts. Maggots. Scarring blows.

Why do we have to hurt each other so much? And shouldn't the "justice" system be able to step into an otherwise emotionally-charged situation and intervene with objective and fair solutions? Or are we still on that boat getting beaten with batons and starving to death while everyone simply looks away?

There will always be a lot of pain in this world because that's really what we do best. But I guarantee we'd do less of it if we lifted our eyes up high enough to get our fat faces out of the trough of selfishness and instead looked into the eyes of the people we are directly affecting with our actions.

And give that elephant's ass a spanking.