From the ghettos of the city, you can see lofty downtown skyscrapers as you fall into a pot hole or step on crack vials.

(My sad poetic statement for the day)

www.jubileeusa.org

I found some statistics about international debt. I understand that in a perfect world, people are to pay off any debts they have incurred. As Christians, we are to "leave no debt outstanding" (except the debt to love). However, this is not a perfect world. At a certain point, demanding repayment for debt (if people even have a right to demand that) becomes oppressive. The one who has should not demand from the one who has not. Yet, the rich love to try to squeeze blood out of oranges, to get every last drop of wealth in exchange for the degradation of those who are hopelessly indebted to them.

By the way, here are several statistics:

Maybe this is a strange question, but I was thinking about it and then talking to Natey about it: Why do we really fear death?

Is it just the unknown for a lot of people? Is it that we are afraid of the pain that comes before we die oftentimes? Maybe many are not as afraid of death as it seems... Share your thoughts!

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/23/opinion/23kristof.html?n=Top%2fOpinion%2fEditorials%20and%20Op%2dEd%2fOp%2dEd%2fColumnists

Long address....

Another quote from the book:

"To put it simply, marriage is a relationship far more engrossing than we want it to be. It always turns out to be more than we bargained for. It is disturbingly intense, disruptively involving, and that is exactly the way it was designed to be...It was meant to be a lifelong encounter that would be much more rigorous and demanding than anything human beings could have chosen, dreamed of, desired, or invented on their own...Only marriage urges us into the deep and unknown waters, for that is its very purpose: to get us out beyond our depth, out of the shallows of our own secure egocentricity and into the dangerous and unpredictable depths of a real interpersonal encounter."

This is probably one reason (to piggyback on chwv's ideas) why marriages don't work as well. Society keeps us busy with nonsense and noise of constant entertainment and the relentless pursuit of "more." If we ever get free from the noise, the silence is like noise. It's hard to confront the reality of who we are and of who are husband or wife (or anyone for that matter) is.  Some people are in pursuit of depth, but they might not realize that God, through other people, holds up a mirror to ourselves. We may not be able to see it clearly. Or we may see and turn away.  But in marriage, that mirror is there for continual gazing. We have to look, to learn, and to change. 

What I see in the relationships among young people (and in our mainstream televised society) is that shallowness and sex pervade everything, so when people begin marriage (if they even decide to go that route), they have no idea how to relate on a deep level. They have gotten by with the minimum requirements to keep things going. Having something worthwhile is not for those who want to piddle around and then demand positive results. Life isn't that easy! The journey loves takes us on is a life-changing experience that confronts out fears and insecurities and sins and idiosyncrasies and asks us to stop believing and acting as though we are the only ones who matter and live for someone else's good.

(I welcome comments!! It's hard to gather my thoughts oftentimes, but I felt it was important to talk about this.)