To understand just one life...

You have to swallow the world.

It used to be that your universe ended at the corner store, maybe the next town...
But it seems the world's been getting smaller, of late.
Around the globe in 80 days, has become a 26hr trip.
And an email to Shanghai is a matter of minutes,
Getting a quick response is another thing.

It's scary sometimes, I'll admit.
And it's tempting to shy away from our growing interconnections.
To sit idly by and waste away the hours...
But that won't make our mutual differences go away,
And it won't make the world we live in a better place.

For as long as I can remember I've been trying to make sense of various things.
Anything really.
"Why?" is a familiar childhood sentence.
And, I don't know why...
I just like knowing what makes people tick and things move ahead.
How we're all unique and individual in a way.
And ultimately come together through sharing our common spaces.

However, being "informed" is no piece of cake.
And time has remained in short supply.

Sifting through most contemporary news media,
I was sad to find that appropriate context is often lacking.
Due to time constraints, or budgets, or interests biases -
it doesn't really matter.
It's just not there.

Knowledge is important because it dictates our sense of affinity.
How or why we feel close to things often depends on how familiar they are to us.
Most people are reluctant to engage the unknown,
We prefer to stay safely within our comfort zones.

Still, no man is an island.

And if we want to start making the world a better place,
It's about time we start asking ourselves about it.
Whether it's the other side of the globe or the other side of the street.
Things are constantly going on,
it's a matter of getting involved.

To kick things off:
A podcast from Doctors Without Borders. The report focuses on three of the most underreported humanitarian stories from the past year: Sri Lanka's rekindled civil war, the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo's North Kivu province and civilian struggles survive amid the violence in Central African Republic.