I Was Thinking... Affected

I was sheltered. Growing up in a small rural community in NE Wisconsin, I wasn’t exposed to many of the problems of the world. We only got three TV stations, and our newspaper was a local weekly. There was no internet, social media, or Google. Things like crime, racism, and famine were not prevalent in my community.
All those things were real, but I thought they occurred someplace else and not where I lived. It seemed like my small town and rural community isolated me from those things.
There was also a time when being a nation bordered by two oceans, we had the feeling that we were protected. We tried to stay out of both WWI and WWII because it was happening “over there” not here. But we quickly realized what happened in other parts of the world did affect us. We couldn’t pretend the rest of the world didn’t matter. Today that is more true than ever before.
A hurricane that hits Florida doesn’t affect us in Minnesota, or so we think. But then we notice the price of oranges go up and our house insurance also increases. Political unrest in Columbia is their problem not ours except if you happen to drink coffee. Forest fires in Canada aren’t burning our trees but then we notice our air quality is worst.
A tariff on Mexico or Canada may raise the price of our guacamole, lumber or gas. Look at the label on any of the clothes you buy, and you will probably see a sticker that says, Viet Nam, India, or Mexico. We are definitely citizens of the world, not just a state or country. But we should be used to that, we’ve been affected by things far away for all our lives.
Last week I heard my wife talking to someone on the phone and I heard her say, “Oh, that’s terrible.” Was somebody sick, did someone get hurt, had somebody died? But the tragedy they were discussing was the impending closure of JoAnn Fabrics.
Of course, my reaction was, “Oh, is that all?” Now if it was the closing of Menards, Fleet Farm, or Cabela’s, that would really be a tragedy. We obviously view things depending on how we feel we are affected.
But I didn’t think I was affected by the closing of JoAnn Fabrics. However, I soon learned that when you have a wife who sews and quilts, you are affected too. That is why on a Saturday afternoon in March, I was sitting in our car in the parking lot while my wife and daughter were among the throngs of women who were descending on JoAnn Fabrics. But I was affected by more than the store closing.
Here I was, with my book, sitting in a car just waiting. It was windy and rather cold outside, but I was very comfortable in the car because of something 93,000,000 miles away.
A ball of gas we call the sun was definitely making my wait more comfortable as its rays warmed the inside of the car. We see it rise and set every day and hardly give it a thought. Yet, our very existence depends on it being there every day. It affects our weather patterns, our communication, and the ability of plants to grow so we can continue to live. Even the snow that piled up recently disappeared because of that object 93,000,000 miles away.
So maybe we can learn something from old Sol, we are all connected and affected, even if some feel we can isolate ourselves from the rest of the world.
Did You Ever Wonder? — If the sky is the limit, is there anything beyond the sky?