Hey buddy, can you spare some perspective?

The death of Michael Jackson has occupied more airtime, column inches and cyberspace than is reasonable and I had, until today, sworn I would not add to the noise.

Except yesterday I watched a news report that showed hundreds of thousands of people in streets around the world doing their Billie Jean/Thriller/Bad impersonations and decrying the loss of a musical genius and "great man". His death and subsequent media frenzy managed to push the situation in Iran among other pressing issues off the front page.

In the interest of full disclosure I should reveal that in the 1980s I was a MAJOR Michael Jackson fan. I had my wall covered in photos of him, I could do all his dance moves and read Tiger Beat and Teen Magazine for all possible news about him. My mother even stood in line for six hours to get tickets for my brother and I to go see the Victory Tour at the Big O in Montreal. It was obvious to me, even at the age of 13, that he was other worldly in his musical ability.

And then a few things happened:

1) I discovered punk music

2) Michael went off the rails

Like so many others I was disturbed by how his self-loathing manifested itself through ridiculous plastic surgery and I was horrified at the first charges of child molestation. I was sure there was nothing to it - an opportunistic family was taking advantage of him - but then I saw interviews with him where he talked about sharing a bed with young boys was a normal and loving thing to do.

Yeah. Allen Ginsberg said the same thing.

A court may have found him not guilty (which is not the same as innocent) but it was enough for me to ensure I would never buy another cd or download a single song of his. There was simply no way I was going to let any of my money find its way into his pocket.

I say all this because I want to make it clear that I understand the impact his music had on the world. I also understand the impact his choices in his personal life had on the world.

What I don't understand is the outpouring of grief for a man whose musical genius is undisputed but whose life was clearly dark and trouble.

I don't understand how people take to the streets, go the Coroners Office, the hospital etc etc over the death of a musician and yet comparatively speaking the streets are empty on issues like Iran, Darfur, the Congo, Zimbabwe, North Korea.

The coming together of people over MJ's death has dominated news stories for four days. It has been the lead story for reputable and disreputable news organizations alike. The images of people dying - actually dying - as they fight for democracy and rights in Iran are nothing but an afterthought compared to this outpouring of humanity over a celebrity.

And it leaves me thinking that if people put this kind of effort into issues that actually mattered, the news reported would be a whole lot different than it is now.

One of these days we will find some communal perspective. I just hope it's sooner rather than later because the world is burning while the people are moonwalking.

Words that matter

Words are amazing in their power - they can soothe, they can empower, they can hurt, they can heal, they can inspire. There are some quotes that I go back to to find centre, to remind myself of what's important and this is one of my favourites:

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.

We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be?

You are a child of God.

Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone.

And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

*8 Things

This week's question from Magpie Girl

So, what *8 Songs connect you to the Divine? Songs that aren’t classically “religious” or “church music” but create a harmonic bridge to all things holy. Songs that soothe the soul. Songs that encourage and shore you up. Songs that connect you to something bigger and beyond, or more deeply and truly to the here/now. What songs are just Good Medicine? Do tell…

1. With or Without You - U2 - there is a spiritual thread through this song that binds with the loving aspect of it. 

2. Another Day - Rent Soundtrack - No Day But Today. Give in to love or live in fear. Though the song sounds anthemic I find it comforting and a reminder of where to focus my energies. 

3. Mark's Song - Eastmountainsouth - I don't honestly know the story behind this song but I heard it at a time when I was in need of solace and in provided that in spades. It's like a comfortable sweater for me, I put it on and I am warmed. 

4. Pull Me Through - Jim Cuddy - I don't so much hear this song as I feel it in a hundred different ways. 

5. For Good - Wicked Soundtrack - This song is divine all on its own. I actually removed it from my Ipod for a long time - it wasn't that it was too painful to listen to it - I just associated it too closely with the manipulative and dishonest actions of one person. I have since reclaimed the song and feel that divinity with it again. 

6. The Promise - Tracy Chapman - The sentiment of this song is so achingly beautiful

7. Hallelujah - Jeff Buckley/Leonard Cohen/k.d.lang - This song is so pure. 

8. Here Comes the Sun - The Beatles - The song is hope, pure and simple. 

What are yours? Share here - and check out Magpie Girl's blog by clicking on the *8 Things link. 

Making a bigger mark

I was buying a plane ticket today when the very kind ticket agent asked me if, given how much I fly, I wanted to participate in their program to reduce my carbon footprint. As always, for me, one thought leads to another.

What would the world be like if we spent as much time worrying about our spiritual footprint as we did about our carbon footprint? What if, while we work so feverishly at reducing our environmental impact on our world we spent an equal amount of effort to increase our spiritual impact? If we felt as much responsibility to each other as we do to the oceans, the skies and the climate?

For me, my spiritual footprint is not about God or religion (though it could be about that too), it’s about contributing good where I can. As those of you who read this blog know, the situation of sexual violence in the DRC has been uppermost in my mind for quite some time.

Part of the reason why I am so preoccupied with the women and girls of the DRC is because of the absolute silence of the world community in the face of the greatest sexual violence ever. If the rebels and militia in the DRC were burning forests or killing endangered species, I suspect the response would be very different. PETA, Al Gore and David Suzuki would be protesting – formally and informally – at every possible level. Instead, after 12 years of ongoing violence, our leaders remain mute as women and girls are being destroyed. How is it there is no organization called People for the Ethical Treatment of People?

The situation in the DRC (and Sudan and Zimbabwe) is much like the climate challenges we are facing. For years environmentalists looked to the world leaders to demonstrate leadership on the issue and when none was forthcoming, they rallied at the grassroots. They burned the urgency of the situation in to the consciousness of everyday people. We recycle, we compost, we use reusable bags and we celebrate when merchants decide to charge for the use of plastic bags. Now, world leaders scramble to catch up with the grassroots movement so as to be seen to be caring about an issue so important to the ‘common people’.

So how do we set the grassroots on fire about the DRC? We must, for their sake and ours, find a way to have more and more people seized with the issue so that leaders will be seized. Nine months in to this fight (which is nothing compared to many how have been fighting this fight for more than a decade) and I am more convinced than ever that the only way politicians will pay any attention to this issue is if we force them to.

And one of the ways we put their attention on the DRC is to expand our spiritual footprint. The fire raging in the DRC isn’t going to destroy the landscape. It is destroying something much more valuable – the human spirit. When we choose to raise our voices for the victims and survivors of femicide we allow kindness and compassion and action to take up more and more space in our world and force the darkness to recede inch by inch.

Every life has equal value. When our leaders are wrapped up in announcing stimulus spending, taking curtain calls on economic updates or even smiling for the cameras on date nights, it is our job to remind them of that. When we increase our footprint, we can force them to increase theirs.

Reducing our carbon footprint is sexy, alluring and a call to action.

So is expanding our spiritual footprint.

Need a laugh?

Sometimes it's important to push all the big important stuff to the side and laugh until it hurts. This video got a viewing this weekend during a trip to T-Dot. Maybe it's because we were watching it at 1:30 a.m but I laughed until I snorted.

20 year ago today...

....a single unknown person showed us all just how powerful we can be

Speaking for those silenced

There was an article about the DRC in my inbox this morning containing a quote that threatened to suck the breath right out of me.

"A three-year-old girl succumbed to injuries sustained from defilement, presumably by the FDLR," Yombo said. "According to her mother, the [girl's] sisters aged 12, 14 and 17 have also all been raped at least once by armed men."

A three year old girl.

Three.

Three is when you learn how to jump rope.

Three is when you think candy is more valuable than money.

Three is when you think the world is the size of your backyard and that seems humongous to you.

Three is when you still believe in superheroes.

Three is when even knowing rape exists as a weapon should not be possible.

Can you imagine, even for a moment, how horrific a little girl’s injuries must be to die from them?

Can you imagine, even for a moment, the total and abject terror that child must have felt as she was being violated? What her three sisters and mother felt as it happened to them and they watched it happen to her? Three year old girls don’t even know what a penis is – not really.

The situation in the DRC – the total attempted destruction of females, or as Eve Ensler calls it, femicide – is the most dire on the planet.

War is being waged on the bodies of girls and women. GIRLS.

And the longer allow war to be waged on the bodies of those girls and women, the greater our message to each other that war can be waged on the bodies of all girls and women.

What is happening in the DRC is not a matter of race, it’s a matter of geography. The battle is over resources – the resources mined to build our cell phones, our Blackberrys, our iPhones, our X-Boxes and our PlayStations.

The solution to the mining issue is not to shut down the mines but rather to engage with companies in responsible mining.

Look at your iPhone or your Blackberry. Are all the helpful apps and bells and whistles worth the life of a three year old girl? Is having the coolest, newest gadget worth having a child raped to death?

I’m not for a moment suggesting giving up your phone or PlayStation but you can ask the companies you buy from to provide proof the minerals used in the products you buy don’t come at the cost of the girls and women of the DRC – at the rate of 1,100 reported rapes a month.

There are ways to force companies to be more accountable, like the Kimberley Process governing the mining of diamonds, that puts an end, mostly, to blood diamonds. Is it perfect? No. But if we want perfection we will never start.

And we must start.

Because three year old girls are being raped to death.

I look at my Blackberry and I think how cool it is. With it on my hip, I can work from anywhere, I can update Facebook, I can Tweet – I can be in touch with all my friends – from anywhere.

But really, what is the point of us being connected electronically if we lose sight of the fact we are interconnected?

ps – Click here to find out how you can spread the word, raise much needed funds.

It's the fall that will kill you

There is a great scene from an episode of the West Wing where C.J. tells Josh:

"You guys are like Butch and Sundance peering over the edge of a cliff to the boulder-filled rapids 300 feet below, thinking you better not jump 'cause there's a chance you might drown. The President has this disease and has been lying about it, and you guys are worried that the polling might make us look bad? It's the fall that's gonna kill ya."

That scene always reminds me that it is the little things in life that are more likely to trip you up than the big ones. Big events, big things, are rarely a surprise and there is usually some way of preparing for it, if not guarding against it. It's the little things - the small, easy to ignore moments, that can pile up and before you know they're threatening to push you over the edge.

I'm pretty good at rolling with things - I rarely get too up or too down. My friends would probably use 'steady' as an adjective when it comes to me but I have noticed more and more that if I'm not willing to make a course correction when little things pop up then they become boulders blocking my way as I try to roll along.

I have always believed in taking the higher road, in not wasting energy in engaging in petty sniping. Note here that I'm saying 'I have always believed' which is not the same thing as 'I always have taken the higher road', because, hello? I'm not perfect - and I don't pretend to be.

Now the tricky part for me always comes in trying to draw that line between paying attention to the little things and obsessing over them. The thing with little things is that they grow in to big things if you ignore them but they also grow into big things if you pay them too much mind.

So how do you achieve the balance?

I'm asking because I don't know. I'm asking because there are some small petty things that I'm holding on to and I don't like the anger they encourage in me. One of the downsides about being a Libra is those damn scales have to be in balance or things can get u.g.l.y.

How do you know which little things to watch carefully and which little things to ignore?

On the weekend, I purchased The Tibetan Book of Mediation. While I'm a Catholic who believes in the power of prayer and sanctity of mass, I also believe in karmic balancing. I do believe for every choice, every action we take there is a domino effect that follows. I'm hoping the book, which is proving to be a fascinating read, will help me quiet my mind (oh stop snickering, you know who you are) and figure out some of those answers.

If I do, I'll be sure to let you know. If you have suggestions, post 'em here.

xoxo

Silence is the Enemy

As those of you who frequent my blog know, I am on a mission to raise awareness about the sexual violence and femicide in the DRC and elsewhere in the world. My first piece on it can be found here. I wrote it after reading Stephanie Nolen's article about the women of the DRC being re-raped. I believe now as I did then, this is not a women's issue, it is a human issue. This isn't about charity, this is about an emergency.

Producing A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant and A Prayer was the start, not the end. There is so much more work to be done. These girls and women who are being raped at the rate of 1,100 a month are our sisters, our nieces, our mothers, our aunts and our grandmothers. We must stand in solidarity with them and be the voice for those who have been silenced.

Please read this great blog post at The Intersection and help get the word out.

It is time for us to end the silence, once and for all.