Who can we trust these days? I don’t like hearing that question very much whether it’s out of someone’s mouth or in my own head. We have enormous nationwide organizations that have filled their rapid and powerful information streams with so much debris that we could fear that our trusted bridges of decency may well smash into their polluted rage.
Constant personal vigilance is vital to avoid compromising our health by eating from the once trust worthy American food industry. A slew of companies now make billions from selling products of horrible quality. Our landfills bulge with much of this unusable merchandise. The challenge of buying products that have provided American people with jobs discourages even the tenacious seeker. Is the label declaration “Made in the USA “ still true?
Labels on bottles and boxes very often give addresses on USA soil as though thousands work here to make and handle these items and pay taxes to our country. But sadly in truth these addresses have only a small mail processing team.
Well paid CEO’s often wave the flag and claim a good guy image while taking their huge pay checks in a foreign bank to avoid paying the taxes they owe the USA. On our soil customers pay taxes and keep money going into executive pockets atop their dirty swill. Yes they may hire to sell their products in retail and service markets but they continuously maneuver to keep their payrolls lower and lower. This means lower and lower pay checks. This means lower and lower standard of living. This also means extreme performance pressure amid a fearful climate were long standing, high quality workers get fired. Upper management flings well seasoned integrity and loyalty to the curb for lesser paid inexperienced beginners.
Someone has said that when money becomes the morality, there is no morality. To keep our honor, we must resist the decay of our American morals as best we can. Yet bread winners of every ilk often face a necessity to settle for these substandard employers.
Of course in this neurotic competition, ugly personalities rear their maladjusted heads. How do we manage our resentment? How do we forgive? How do we continue to serve one another?
Really, I know we each have different needs. At times or in some ways we each need more from the people who surround us. I know that I do. To compensate, I try to give a lot.
I trust that if we listen in our true hearts, we give as we are intended to. On rare moments we get to see it happen. In those moments we get to see that we do makes a difference. Those are deep beautiful, even humbling moments. I trust in this worldwide mysterious truth, because it builds, touches, heals, wider than any ONE of us could design. Having a sense of this intangible reality inspires me. What a relief to be on that worldwide, even sacred, team.
~
The Possible Healing of a Lonely Place
by Eydie McDaniel
Some times lonely places press inside, out of sight. Some generate a more observable picture.
Once in the middle of a dark night the squeal of a straining voice awakened me. The much softer voice of the neighbor lady next door attempted to reply telling him to go to the police station to ask about his stolen items. My heart ached for this shivering desperate man, alone outdoors, without his bedroll, and without his food. How harsh, how unfair! My household snuggled safe and warm. Even our animals had it better than a homeless person.
Some hearts hide in fear. Even today, some hearts feel they must hide their precious love. The heritage of old judgmental cruelty still lingers. Some seniors where I live at Windsor Gardens have struggled decades with a hidden, lonely place inside. I wonder how many people have carried the secret of their attractions all alone to their grave. I wonder how much greatness we have all missed because hiding who you are robs so much of the energy it takes to ever become your very best.
Windsor Gardens of Denver happens to be one of very few senior housing organizations noble enough to sanction a club that could help heal this pain. An ad listed as LGBT Club now appears in ‘Windsor Life’. It promotes monthly meetings right here where an unknown number of seniors with diverse intimate identities make their home. Since it formally began in February, now 9 months ago, some 55 individuals have participated with an average attendance of 28.
The abbreviation LGBT, one of the common markings, stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered. Choices of abbreviations vary and may include: GLBT, LGBTIQ, etc. Here at WG we simply call ourselves PRIDE Windsor Gardens.”
PRIDE Windsor Gardens has no agenda to change anything or anyone. Just as in any group here, it feels good to find meaningful affinity with our neighbors. Its programs have included an array of community leaders as guest speakers. It seeks to build ongoing positive strength as a member of the Windsor Gardens community, the wider gay community of Denver, and as its own social community.
We are PRIDE Windsor Gardens, Alive and Welcome. So diverse residents of Windsor Gardens, “ALL ABOARD” Come in out of your cold dark night. All you have to lose is your loneliness.
© October 2014
About the Author
A native of Colorado, she followed her Dad to the work bench to develop a love of using tools, building things and solving problems. Her Mother supported her talents in the arts. She sang her first solo at age 8. Childhood memories include playing cowboy with a real horse in the great outdoors. Professional involvements have included music, teaching, human services, and being a helper and handy woman. Her writing reflects her sixties identity and a noted fascination with nature, people and human causes. For Eydie, life is deep and joyous, ever challenging and so much fun.
