Damaged goods

I've been a bear cub for a few years now with various descriptive adjectives added as circumstances demanded. There is nothing quite like the love, protection and training a Momma Bear gives her cubs. My interaction with Momma Bear brought me here. The cub is now beginning to venture. Join me as we look out the Cub's window.

Damaged goods is what I see today. Human beings tortured, abandoned, starving, drugged, beaten, neglected. But is the world really so much worse now than it was decades or centuries ago? Or could it be the globalization of the modern world is allowing us to see so much more? We can instantly peer in so many different windows in so many different places. It's the ugly things that people seem fascinated by. Just like the carnival sideshows of days gone by. People would pay money to see the Bearded Lady, the Elephant Man and so on.

The skeletons in the closets were always there, also. People used to just try harder to keep things hidden. Could you imagine Great-Aunt Matilda going on the Jerry Springer show to admit Uncle Fred had been boinking the housekeeper? But it happened just the same. What's different now? People don't think twice about airing their dirty laundry. So many people would rather be voyeurs and watch the lives of others than work on their own.

We're taught self-care, independence, self-reliance (and those are the good traits!) Each generation seems to be taught less about respect, kindness, honesty and responsibility. Too many people just give up today. Instead of a second effort they just move on. Instead of building a stronger house they moved to a different one. Instead of working on building a stronger relationship with a spouse the majority just leave one relationship to start another one. Or start another and then leave the first. Far too many people are leaving behind trails. Trails of broken relationships, broken hearts and broken homes.