Focusing on the Wrong Part of the Story

I have mentioned -- a time or two -- that I have a cleaning/neatness thing. Order is important to me. Maintenance and cleanliness are important to me.

Sometimes, though, they have to fall by the wayside.

Thing that happened (short version of the story, because ain't nobody got time for the long version): broken glass is WICKED sharp and stabby. Which, duh.

And also, OWWWCCCHHH.

And also also? Bloody.

Know what happens when there's bleeding? You don't have time (or, you know, inclination) to clean. Because ... did I mention? BLEEDING.

And you can't freak about the mess. The mess? Isn't the problem. The wound is the problem.

I had not forgotten that life is messy. I think about that daily. But I also -- with some regularity -- get wrapped up in the wrong part of the story. When your hand is bleeding, taking time to fret about the carpet isn't just ridiculous, it's simply WRONG. You can't care about that. People first. Carpets second. Because honestly? WHO CARES. 

(Which isn't to say that I didn't clean the HELL out of that carpet later. Of course I did. I'm ME.)

The thing is, though, that I think I -- we, people -- tend not to make the people the central part of the story. I think the bloody carpet often gets the attention first, as though that needs to be addressed before a hand gets stiched up, or as if the person who is bleeding is less important than something that cannot bleed and does not have needs.

On a scale that's larger than a sliced up hand? I feel like we have an entire nation of people who are bleeding while policy makers and politicians are working on cleaning a carpet. And it BOTHERS me. It bothers me that so many people are struggling and instead of working to make it better, make it right, make it work, we have paid officials who want to make sure that the plan has the proper labels on it.

STOP LOOKING AT THE CARPET AND LOOK AT THE WOUND. Stop the bleeding.

Focus on the right part of the story.

At any rate -- everything in the house is fine. Glass cleaned up. Wounds attended to and healing. Bloodstains eradicated. Nothing broken that can't be replaced.

In terms of the bigger picture? I guess we'll have to wait and see. I wish I had more hope.

I wish.