Born In a Diamond Mine

I, like many of you, have been upset about the conditions of the world right now. Things aren't great. EVEN IF you're a fan of the current administration and think that some of the wild things they're doing are good, you will agree that the world is in a lot of turmoil. (I am NOT a fan of the current administration and I'm rather upset.)

Let me get this out of the way, because people don't seem to understand it: I may be a New York Times Bestselling novelist, but I ain't rich. We, like the majority of Americans, live paycheck to paycheck. (Being an author in real life is not like being an author in the movies--and being an author who hasn't published anything in six years doesn't really mean a lot of book money is rolling in.) Besides that, as I've mentioned here, I am SUPER mentally ill--and I have passed those genes down to my children.

All of which to say: life ain't easy.

But, while all of the crap has been going on in the world, a song lyric has been going through my head. It's from Arcade Fire's Creature Comfort (which I've written about before). The song is about people with body image and self-respect issues, and the line that keeps hitting me is "Born in a diamond mine--it's all around you but you can't see it."

I don't want to paint things as rosier than they are, but I think so many of us are really "born in a diamond mine." Because: I have a job! I don't make enough to put much into savings, but I manage to pay my bills! I don't own a home, but I do have a roof over my head and I'm not worried about being put out on the street! I may have schizophrenia, but I have access to doctors and medication that help!

I've been thinking a lot about impoverished countries lately, inspired, in part, by following author John Green's campaign against tuberculosis (and John and Hank Green's wider campaign against maternal mortality). And while I can say "boo hoo, I can't afford to eat out this month", I can definitely say "I live in a place where I'm not afraid of my kids catching an entirely preventable disease." I can say "I have clean water and electricity and I don't go hungry."

This is NOT to imply that there isn't very real suffering right here in the United States. I lived on the Navajo Reservation a couple decades ago and was shocked to see the levels of abject poverty that exist less than a hundred miles from big cities like Albuquerque: dirt floors, no water, no electricity. That's in the United States.

On top of that, there are some people who are very afraid for their physical safety due to both societies and the government's attitudes toward their very personhood. I get that. I have people in my own family who have those fears. I'm not trying to downplay that at all.

But I think that all of us could use the mindset of "Born in a diamond mine." There is so much good in this world. I just hope that, in that diamond mine that's all around us, we can see it.