We had dinner at Chipotle yesterday, an American chain restaurant that serves burritos. I had a craving for their cilantro lime rice. We also ordered iced tea. Chipotle prints different things on their paper cups - sometimes funny, sometimes educational. The current series is called Cultivating Thought. Mine had a short essay by Neil Gaiman, "Two Minutes to Run" which started like this.
"I am thinking about the fragility of civilization. Look around you, at the building you are in, the road you travel on. What you see was made by people who agreed that they would get up in the morning and go to work and nobody would shoot at them or fire mortars at them; there would not be checkpoints at which they could be taken out and never seen again; that there would be food in the shops, and water in the taps, and shoes to buy and wear. People who believed that the place you go to sleep tonight will be here tomorrow."
Interesting timing. Today marks the 101st anniversary of World War I.
"The lamps are going out all over Europe, we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime," was the prescient comment of Sir Edward Grey shortly before the onset of the (so called) War to End All Wars. Yet there is still so much misunderstanding, hatred, and conflict today.
Do more than say a prayer for peace.
Ease another's pain.
Reach out to help someone.
Be the change you want to see in the world.
Ann