Cleaning up Messes

The following few days of site visit turned out to be a lot better than the first. I bounced back from the initial shock of my living conditions (temporarily at least). I even started to view the house and the condition it was in, in relation to the world. I had joined Peace Corps because the world is a mess, and I wanted to make it better. I was in essence sent to Namibia to help clean up an existing “mess”. This nasty, nasty house was not only a literal microcosm of the mess, but it was also a metaphor for the world at large.

All over the world, in every single country, there are “messes” that are created by self-absorbed, unaware, inconsiderate individuals and entities (governmental and business). Sometimes these people and organizations are completely ignorant to what they are doing and just don’t realize how they are affecting others (maybe they would change if they did?), but sometimes, as sad as it is, they know exactly what they are doing and are entirely aware of the harm and damage they are inflicting upon people and the planet that sustains them.

Sometimes the messes are more tangible. For example, when a person litters and throws a piece of garbage on the ground (or when a roommate is a slob and doesn’t clean up after himself). When a business, that doesn’t factor in the destruction of the planet into its cost-benefit analysis, pollutes the local environment and therefore, because everything is connected, is polluting the whole world. And when conversely, a business, that does actually include in its cost-benefit analysis the dignity of human life but deems financial profits to far outweigh that dignity, exploits human beings, including children, in sweatshop factories they have created in various parts of the world.

Sometimes the messes are intangible. For instance, when systems are set up, like health insurance, which prioritize making profits over improving the quality of life of the people for whom the systems were initially created to help. When minds are lost and confused from being constantly mislead, manipulated, and deceived with lies and false information from people and institutions they trust. And when people’s mentalities about themselves and others are shaped solely by negative experiences acquired while interacting with the world around them.

And sometimes, and I believe almost all of the time, the messes are a combination of both. Such as poverty, with its mental and emotional impacts on the poor, in addition to the systems in place that perpetuate the cycle of poverty and ensure that it continues for generations to come, along with its blatantly obvious problems such as starvation, homelessness, lack of education, lack of money and resources, and just altogether general lack. Such as crime, with its visible effects of vandalism, theft, rape, and murder, along with its less visible effects of terrorizing its victims, in addition to the underlying systems that perpetuate that cycle as well. Such as war, with all of its devastation and destruction, landscapes scarred, people injured, and lives lost, along with the equally traumatic mental devastation that it inflicts upon everyone.

These messes, and all other messes in the world, are the product of one thing and one thing only…selfishness. It’s the individual, “me” mentality that causes all of these problems (quite possibly all problems) in the world. Because if you are thinking in terms of everything being part of an interconnected organism or brotherhood of humanity, how can you even make a mess to begin with, let alone not take responsibility for it and clean up after yourself if you accidentally do make one? People need to start thinking about the consequences and effects of their actions, and about the people who will be the ones cleaning up the messes in the aftermath, instead of merely thinking about the self-reward that lies in their moment of decision.

I hope the day will come when individuals will no longer burden the rest of humanity by their self-centered choices and desires. Until then, the world will continue to be distorted with its assortment of messes. And while it’s unfair, and we should never have to live in these messes in the first place, we do have a choice to make… we can continue to live in the filth of others, OR we can begin to clean up this world, one small mess at a time, by trying to mend the wounds inflicted upon the environment, by trying to wash away the errors in the imperfect systems that continually fail us, by trying to wipe away the grime of deception imposed upon our minds, and by trying to polish and restore this magnificent planet and its remarkable habitants to their original luster.

I refuse to live in anyone’s filth. I came to Africa to clean up messes… and that’s exactly what I’m going to do.