They're everywhere, again and again

Sunday Sparkle # 4: Bandaids

Oh, the humans….

As much as I dearly love our special breed of creature, we have some behavioural go-to tendencies that drive me nuts.

One in particular is our addiction to applying bandaids to problems, aka the superficial temporary treatment of symptoms, rather than driving down straight to the core for the cure.

This behaviour is troubling for two reasons:

1. It happens on both the micro and macro levels.

2. These “solutions” to problems always…and I mean ALWAYS birth more problems.

In short, it causes harm. To few and to many. And to no small degree.

I have yet to determine if this inane behaviour is due to the mass ‘indoctrination disguised as education’ we are subjected to upon birth that infantilizes us, ensuring we grow into controllable submissive adults by instilling in us a lack of belief in our own innate wisdom and power to effect change, to create, to heal.

Or perhaps it’s just the stage of consciousness we are at collectively as a species.

If this world is a 3D classroom, perhaps this is one of the many lessons we are now attempting to learn. Maybe we graduate to the next level once we figure out how to not keep going around in circles.

problem→ bandaid→ Problems → Bandaids→ PROBLEMS!!! → MORE BANDAIDS!!!!!!!!

Cures to problems require honest, good-faith investigation as to the cause. They require us to ask “why?”.

Children start out asking ‘why’ naturally. And then we are trained to stop.

Remedying a problem is a big responsibility. It takes a mature human to admit a mistake, to accept reality, and then to make an effort to do, to think, to be different.

It takes work and long-term thinking.

And I think we’ve been trained to be lazy and to let someone else deal with it.

“Just put some duct-tape on it. I’ve got TV to watch.”

---

the context

This post was inspired by the ever-present propagation of two very popular, yet highly over-rated, “solutions”: pharmaceuticals and censorship.

After living through a century of widespread violence, corruption, and harm induced by both collectivist tyrannies that employ the weapon of censorship to centralize oppressive top-down control, and corporate Big Pharma making billions off of peddling fake “cures” for injuries they might even have caused, it is both maddening and saddening to watch the pattern repeat. Again and again.

We are going in circles, stuck in the same classroom, in approaching age-old issues with the same age-old stale thinking.

As a song-writer (who admittedly spent a chunk of my 20’s as a Greenpeace graduate SJW) I often reflect and write about such issues as my way of drawing attention to issues, of venting my upset, and perhaps even offering up some real solutions.

One such song is the one I share with you today, Bandaid.

Though I wrote it nearly 25 year ago (how much does it pain me to say that?!) I’m sad to say the lyrics are still relevant- perhaps more than ever.

I was living in Vancouver at the time, in a community of beautiful earthy creatures with names like Feather-willow and Sage-breath. We all did our best to recycle, eat living food and care about things like nature and the health of our own bodies and that of the Earth. Salt crystal ‘deodorant’ and fluoride-free toothpaste abounded.

Upon hearing this song, a musical guitar-genius I had befriended, suggested I apply to FACTOR for a grant so I could afford to hire him and record it in his studio. I pain-stakingly filled out the paper-work (I hate that shit), sent it off….and a few months later received a cheque in the mail for $1000. I called up Jesse and into the studio I went.

The following track is the version we recorded together. There are a few things I would love to change were I to re-mix it, like give the vocals a boost. However, it exists now as a memory capsule of a time and place. When I listen to it, I hear the passion and frustration of my 25 year old self wanting us, urging us all to wake up from sleep-walking. To stop “bending what we mend”. To outgrow the childishness of quick fixes and to grow up into adults with the knowledge to cure what ails us.

Enjoy….xo

---

the words

Nicotine patches patch over the wounds of addiction

Human-made clouds hide the human-made holes in the sky

Triple-bypass surgery bypasses the questions

Taking TUMS for relief relieves us from asking why

Always a Bandaid

Never the cure

Choking on doses of our anti-medication

Doesn’t do much to heal the ill situation

Got a lazy disease

Gotta come clean to see…

An eye for an eye says we’re caught in a cycle of vicious

Locking lost souls in a cage hoping they’ll fly

Paper plates plastic spoons save us from doing the dishes

Wrinkle removal removes our need to ask why?

Always a Bandaid

Never the cure

Choking on doses of our anti-medication

Doesn’t do much to heal the ill situation

Got a lazy disease

Gotta come clean to see…

How we bend what we mend then bend it again

How me meant what we bent and then bend it again

How we bend what we mend and then bend it again

How me meant what we bent and then bend it again

And again, and again, and again, and again

And again, and again, and again

---

Thank you so so so much for making it this far to the end of my post. In return for your commitment I offer you my appreciation for you being here. For listening to my art. And caring enough to read what I write. I wish you the best day in your world…!

If you’d like to support me in my efforts to make the world a little more beautiful, a little brighter, you can consider a paid subscription or simply a donate a tip to buy me some time to make even more music. Your offering is so kindly received.

be great

love Jacqueline xo