Today, I am concerned about an ache in my neck that I've had for a month.
I paid someone to massage my neck and back.
I will pay someone else to align my spine.
I will pay people to fix me until I am well.
It's as simple as that.
Today I am concerned about how healthy my meat is.
If I buy the regular meat in the grocery store,
I may be supporting the inhumane treatment of livestock,
I may be eating meat that is filled with hormones and antibiotics.
If I am willing to spend a few dollars more per pound,
I can eat a happy cow, a clean cow, a vegetarian cow.
It's as simple as that.
Today I am concerned about my health,
Whether I'm eating enough fruits and vegetables.
And I'm debating whether I've been drinking enough water.
Because if I eat more fruits and veggies and drink more water,
I'll have more efficient digestion, and I'll feel better,
And more importantly I might lose weight.
The question is not whether I can afford to eat healthier or drink more water.
The question is merely one of self-control;
Can I physically restrain myself from eating too much food
That has too much fat and too much sugar?
It's as simple as that.
My life is as simple as that,
Unless of course, I find myself living a different life.
If I am brown or black, native to a colonized country,
Situated south of the equator,
Everything is different.
If I am one of the billions of people surviving--
Or not surviving--
On just a few dollars a day,
Everything changes.
When I wake up in the morning, that pain in my neck is nothing,
Not compared to pain in my belly when I didn't eat a single meal yesterday,
Not compared to the pain in the soles of my feet from walking all day with no shoes,
Not compared to the constant and crippling pain in my back
From bending over in the hot sun,
Harvesting a rich, white man's crops all day.
That dull ache in my neck is nothing.
When I go to the market to buy food for my family,
I pay no thought to how the meat was raised or what it was fed;
I don't even go near the meat stalls; they would laugh in my face.
They see me and know I don't even have the money to pay for the rice I bought today;
I bought it on credit.
I was lucky the man selling rice would give me any at all.
So tonight, my children will eat only rice,
But at least today they get something;
Another day it will surely be nothing.
When I look at the children sitting at my feet,
I wonder what their lives will be like,
Whether they will have any life at all.
Which of them will I outlive?
Because when one of my children is sick,
There is nothing I can do.
There is nowhere I can go.
There is nobody who will help.
There is a hospital, but I can only take them if I can pay,
And the only way I can pay is if none of us eat.
What kind of choice is that?
So I leave the fate of myself and my children to the gods
Who so far have decided that our fate
Is to have nothing,
Is to be nothing.
It's as simple as that.
