Ah, the bar… The best place in the neighbourhood. This is the place to have your morning coffee, your croissants, your tea, your beer at noon, your ham and cheese sandwich and your gin tonics at five o’clock. The place where you chat with the bartender, the waitress, the cook, your friends, or your significant other. It is the place where most things look clear, bright and interesting…
Yet, although mankind is routine bound and repetitive (and why not, good things should be repeated), life is not like that at all. We think we have dominated and controlled all aspects of life that surround us, affect us, exist with us, but… We are here only by chance…
Thousands of people in south-eastern Turkey and north-western Syria went to bed Sunday night, the fifth of February and never saw the light of day again. Who knows what plans they had for Monday morning. But early in the pre-dawn darkness of the sixth of February nature struck violently and thousands have died. Many more survived after being trapped under rubble that hours before had been their homes. All of them, all the survivors, be they adults or children, will live without everything they had the night before, when they peacefully went to bed…
So, take a look around your bar. What do you see? You see your friends, your peers, the bartender… No one else? No! But they are there. All around you are the thousands who walk our streets everyday carrying their cross of suffering and you do not see them, you do not care. They are invisible because to you they mean nothing. But those people, those people who are homeless, in pain, discriminated against, maligned, alienated, once walked into the bar just like you… So, don’t you think you ought to take a better look around?
But, what does one do? How does one even begin to help change the world? Well, there is only one thing one can do and that is to change things little by little. The things that are within your reach. The people around you that you can help. Be aware of human suffering, of grief, of loneliness, of pain, of helplessness, of abuse. I am sure that they are all around you. All you have to do is look harder…
JaZzArt en València 
Thank you for this beautiful post. Such an important reminder that everyone can do something. 🌹
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Thank you so much Joni! Sometimes the one who need our help are just across the street or around the corner…
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So true, often the case. Amen 🙏
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Amen!
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This is the best entry in your diary ever Francesc.
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Thank you so much Malc!
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Great post Francis.. «Well, there is only one thing one can do and that is to change things little by little. The things that are within your reach.»
Amen my friend! 💗
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Amen!
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🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼
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Wonderful post, Francisco. Very timely.
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Thank you Pat.
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Superbly said, my friend! We change the world one small act of kindness at a time.
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Yes! It’s the most secure way if everybody participates. Thank you my friend!
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This is a lovely post, Francis. Yes, they are all around us. Everyone has something unpleasant they’re dealing with and most of the time we never know. We get so wrapped up in our own problems and concerns, we forget that no one’s life is perfect. We take life for granted until tragedy strikes. Those poor people in Turkey had no idea what lay in store for them when they went to bed that night. You’ve given me lots to think about.
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Thank you Janet. And yes, you are so right, we forget that no one’s life is perfect. Life would be much better if countries would unite to lend a hand to each other rather than shooting missiles…
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