Be the Change no. 18

“It may not be your fault but it is still your problem.”

Be the Change.

Mental health is a discussion everywhere today. Where I live, and probably where you live as well, the mental health discussion is focused on how mental health impacts everyone else and the solutions are focused on minimizing the impact of people with poor mental health on the general population. The focus is not on why people are afflicted with mental health issues. The focus is not on looking at the underlying causes of mental health issues. The focus is, as usual in American health, on maximizing productivity while putting a bandage on a gaping hole in the chest of society.

I will give you an example of this dilemma in my region of Maryland. I live on a peninsula which means there are a few bridges that straddle the waterways leading into and out of the region. One of these bridges is notoriously used for folks to attempt and typically succeed at ending their lives. The bridge has two lanes that go in either direction and is in a poor state of repair like most infrastructure in this country despite how important my tax dollars are for roads. Anywho, there is also a huge portion of this region that finds employment by utilizing that bridge to reach occupations related to the military-industrial complex. Folks commute from one side to the other for high-paying jobs that fall into both government and contracted categories. In fact, it has one of the highest micro-economies in the states. All built on the back of a system that produces veterans that also struggle with mental health issues and end their lives at alarming rates as well.

The solution to this problem in my region is not to examine some key factors in the cause of mental health issues in the region. The solution is to make the bridge a less deadly alternative for ending your life. Instead of going upstream and finding out why people are falling into the river, the solution is just to do better at pulling them out of the river. I am so exhausted with how little we accomplish at making our lives better, for ourselves, for our neighbors, for our future.

Sometimes it feels like thousands of years of advancement has led us irrevocably back to the stone age or dark ages. I am surrounded by folks that are victims of their environment and the environment is toxic. The environment is poisoning us as we poison it right back. And the long-term window down this path does not look promising.

These are the decisions of our leaders these days. This is what we get from voting. This is the system we find ourselves facing. This is not the place to hang your hopes. This is not the place to find solutions. This is not the place to find change.

You are the place to hope, to solve, to change. I see folks leave education and all its flaws to go into a system that creates even more mental health problems for better pay. Your body, your choice. I see folks sacrifice their morality and their alignment just to afford the inflated prices of land and property in this region. Your body, your choice. I see folks losing themselves every day because of their choices. Your body, your choice. I see an ecosystem that is falling apart because the custodians of that region are short-sighted. Your body, your choice.

Have we lost our way? I know that I found my way back. I know that I am not on that path. I know that I chose to live aligned. Have you lost your way? You can find your way back too. I know because I am here on the other path.

#ThinkBetter #BeBetter #NoGodsNoMasters #MyBodyMyChoice #MakeYourselfGreatAgain #BeTheChange