8

While I work I listen to radio shows.  If you have not looked into podcasts I suggest you do.  I will add a little list onto this of my favorites.

Today I was listening to a story podcast and some of the stories were about joy and some hardship.  There is something about hearing peoples stories that really touches me.  The stories I found myself most touched by were the ones based on hardship, because I feel like my life is so padded right now.

I do believe that a lot of times suffering is self inflicted, but all too often I fear it is not.  This is what I cannot understand.  I cannot understand why we are so cruel to one another.  We are really great, do not get me wrong, but sometimes human beings are cruel, hateful, and just plain mean.

After thinking it over it seems to be a part of our nature.  I see this part in people, and in myself that is out of control.  Somehow we keep doing things that are noticeably not very wise, and yet it seems like we have no way to stop doing them.  We know that war is terrible, we know that smoking is very harmful, that processed food is lethal, that people are starving, that debt can be taken too far, and yet we just cannot seem to stop ourselves.  Human beings are complicated, and in some ways cannot govern themselves.

Today the surface is all about uncontrolled chaos.  This image of ceramic artist Catherine Taylor's work speaks to the chaos that I am imagining.