It's complicated.

Last night I went to a meeting--a steering committee I'm on. And I was listening to everyone talk and throw out ideas for this conference we were planning.  I thought all the different stuff that goes on in cities and towns...  All the different non-profits doing similarly aligned things, all the different places serving youth, or people with disabilities, or elders or people of different racial and cultural and religious backgrounds... and it just hit me how very strange it is how most of us humans just want to be healthy and safe and want our friends and family to be healthy and safe...  But how we all disagree so much on how to do it...Or we're doing things working toward the same goals or missions yet not working together.  So many non-profits or government agencies are doing things that serve the same purpose but doing them in opposition to each other or in competition with each other and my goodness...how sad that is.

And then on the way to work this morning, I listened to NPR and the news of the government shut-down and saw on Facebook how my friend Patti (and so many others are) now without work or pay and the people in the middle of needing government help at a standstill...until the shutdown shuts up.  And sometimes I'm just overwhelmed about how complicated it all is, all these SYSTEMS that have muddled and confused and mucked up just the very simple idea of humans (and animals, and our planet) being healthy and safe. 

I know it's all a lot more complicated than that...but we've made it so, haven't we?  I wonder what the answer is...