TEARS

What does an empath do as he grows older?  

He cries a lot.

Music

I just heard Joni Mitchell sing her song, "Both Sides Now," and once again I got teary listening to it. 

...

"Tears and fears and feeling proud

To say "I love you" right out loud

Dreams and schemes and circus crowds

I've looked at life that way.

...

I've looked at life from both sides now

From win and lose and still somehow

It's life's illusions I recall

I really don't know life at all."

Joni said in 1967 that in this song there are only two sides to things:

reality and fantasy

enchantment and disenchantment

what we are taught to believe things are and what they really are

I've mentioned this many times before, but whenever I watch the last act of my favorite opera, La Boheme by Giacomo Puccini, I have the same reaction.  

When Rudolfo realizes that his beloved Mimi has died, he sings out "MIMI!" and the water just starts to gush from my eyes. Every time! I have no control over it.  Even thinking about it right now, I almost tear up.

So you see now what a "crybaby" I've become.

When I was a Branch Chief at the Social Security Administration I usually had thirty or more people working for me.  I was their boss, but also their "mother hen."

Some folks had problems with their spouses and fiancées. Some had bodily problems.  Some were in financial difficulties.  Some were depressed.

I always listened to them and their troubles became mine too.  Sometimes I was even able to help them.

Yes, I have been an empath for years.

So, why am I telling you all this?

Because of an eye-opening article in the Sunday New York Times,  The subject was Haiti.

 I always thought of Haiti as the Nation that stupidly cut down all of its trees and wasn't smart enough to become like its island neighbor, The Dominican Republic.

The article taught me about the history of Haiti.  

In the early 1800's Haitian slaves rose up against their French slave-owners and established an independent country.

The French Government did not like the situation and a few years later threatened Haiti with annihilation unless they paid reparations to their former owners.

These reparations  caused Haiti to become one of the poorest Nations on the globe.

Over the years, as the population grew, Haiti did not produce enough milk to feed its children.  They used their meager financial resources to obtain milk from other countries.

Of course, inflation hit and Haiti could not afford to buy enough milk and had to ration it.

I believe that each child is now entitled to just one liter of milk powder every other week.  Think about that for a moment.

I think that Haiti mothers breast feed their babies and are not involved with formula shortages.  I'm thinking about those little children tugging on their mothers' aprons and asking "Mama, can I have some milk?"  For some children, milk might be their only breakfast food, if they have some.

This makes me cry.

(I may have facts wrong about the Haitian situation, but you get the idea.)

How about the U. S. airlifting some milk powder from our vast reserves?

(By the way, Andre Brown has let us know about the young boy who was so impressed with some American soldiers that he escaped from his slum home in Haiti and somehow managed to get into the U.S. military in exchange for U.S. citizenship.  He later was accepted into one of our military academies and became a top graduate.)

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