What's important?

Lately there’s been wall-to-wall coverage of the carnage in Ukraine and Gaza. Haiti is slowly coming into focus. But it’s always been the end of the world somewhere. There are several ongoing conflicts in Africa that blow even Gaza’s horrendous casualty counts out of the water. Congo. Sudan. Somalia… and they’ve been going on for decades without us ever obsessing over them like we do with Ukraine or Gaza. Some would say that’s because it’s easier for white middle-class audiences to identify with Ukrainian Christians and Israeli Jews than with Africans. No doubt there’s something to that, but my point is that if we can relegate some foreign conflicts to the back burner, we can leave all of them there. Which brings us to what’s important. As you know, I spend a lot of time on the stoop watching the world go by, and thinking about it. That “thinking about it” part allows me to pass off sloth and inertia as “mindfulness.” What I see in the sky on a clear night is an infinite array of stars from horizon to horizon. What I hear is nature; geese in the marsh, coyotes, and the wind in the trees. Last night I traded my perch on the porch for a room overlooking the 401 highway. All I saw was traffic. All I heard was traffic. No night sky and no nature. When you’re counting uncountable stars, you get a sense of your insignificance. When you’re counting uncountable traffic on the 401, you just want to stop counting and go home to your stoop. But we were on a mission. We’d missed our granddaughter's first birthday due to winter weather, and finally made up for it. On the way home we stopped in for a visit with family. Family. That’s what’s important.