Comic Relief versus Real Matters

One internet search using the term, “U2 One,” and I find myself playing about ten clips, mostly interviews... Bono, Bill Hybels, Sir Bob Geldof.

Suddenly... smack! An important fact is broached: 30,000 people a day dying from poverty. That works out at twenty every minute; one every three seconds.

Our lives are often comic relief — despite the difficulties we face and pain we endure — compared with the really poor and oppressed.

That is not making light of your horrible circumstance. But as I consider mine, I’m likely to be bothered and concerned — even in minor ways — by little things in the realm of mighty things. This is okay if I consider my insulated square — my two cubic feet — the space I take up.

But the world doesn’t revolve around me, or you.

The world is a cosmos bigger than any of us can comprehend.

This is a big part of our problem; it’s a personal problem. Each of us has our own world we deal with. These microcosms are, to us, macrocosms. We can’t see more unless we break this ‘personal’ mould. But we need to do it repeatedly.

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The question we best ask ourselves is:

“Compared with the issues of life and death elsewhere in the world, would my issues — in comparison — be comic relief to them?”

Sometimes they wouldn’t be. But, equally, sometimes they would.

© 2011 S. J. Wickham.