T is for Travel #A2Zchallenge

 

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.”
― Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad/Roughing It

P is for Preposterous #A2Zchallenge

Of all the preposterous assumptions of humanity over humanity, nothing exceeds most of the criticisms made on the habits of the poor by the well-housed, well- warmed, and well-fed.

– Herman Melville


Yesterday  I saw an article on poverty which stated that the U.S. is a world leader in poverty and homelessness in children. Don't you find this preposterous? If you google poverty and homeless children why do we only see images of children in less developed countries? Maybe we're ashamed that this 'great' nation let's it's own children suffer while we go abroad to help others. Not that that's not admirable, but something must be done by the most "prosperous" country in the world to see that this comes to an end. We must each search our hearts for what we can do. Give to a charity, work or donate to food banks which are stretched beyond their means. Write your congressmen.

There's a Native American saying about walking a mile in someone else's shoes. To his credit, an American Senator tried to live on minimum wage for a month and admitted he could not. Why is he the only one speaking up?

There's a very big elephant in our living room. But this is too important to allow him to remain a secret. Children...families... are starving.

I is for Introspection #A2Zchallenge

 

 

I love Dean Koontz' writing and to find this quote of his when I was introspecting ;) was cool.

“The heart is an artist that paints over what profoundly disturbs it, leaving on the canvas a less dark, less sharp version of the truth.”
― Dean Koontz, Forever Odd

It reminds me of other advice from some of the craft books, Hooked, by Les Edgerton in particular that say the more we delve into our own psyche as a person, the better our writing will be. 

I've been thinking about generosity lately. I have a few extremely generous friends in my life who mean a lot to me. They serve as examples in how I'd like to be. So this week I'm concentrating on ways I can be generous.

Do you have traits, like kindness, tenderness, empathy etc that you wish were more present in your life? You don't have to answer but think about it.

Please leave a comment if you're blogging the A-to-a April Challenge and I'll try to return the favor.