Downer

Woke up thinking about the human immune system, and if it's true that much of it exists in the gut, then how do you bring it back into some form of balance after a course of antibiotics knocks it out of whack?  I read yesterday that we have over one trillion "other" organisms that live in, or on us; most in symbiotic relationship.  And each individual's biota is unique to them.  A typical pro-biotic replaces only a handful of those.  Before my immune-system went crazy, I was on two hard-core antibiotics for a hand infection.  It might be coincidental, but since then, the things my body won't tolerate have increased, and I've been almost continually in pain, though the degree fluctuates.  Today it's bad.  I feel like it's worth exploring, not just for me.  Don't get me wrong, the drugs are a godsend, but not a cure.  They slow down progression, but don't heal the underlying issue.  Maybe that's impossible, but maybe it's not.  Anyway, feel a bit in a fog today.

Was also up half the night listening to reports of clashes and protests (Ukraine, Nigeria, CAR, Thailand, Venezuela, Syria, Iraq) and crack-downs on democracy (journalists in Egypt.)  Woke up disheartened as well.  All this violence.  Violence within ourselves, against ourselves (auto-immunity, self-loathing, whatever) and violence against one another (whether warranted or not.)  Were people truly able to live with tolerance for one another or did it only seem that way because one side was repressing the other into submission and silence?  Will humans ever be able to live side-by-side, accepting the ambiguity of the other, accepting the inherent uncertainty of ever finding absolute truths, of tolerating beliefs that are different than our own instead of needing to kill the other belief/believer so that we can be certain we are right?  It's been our (human) history to kill, to control by force.  It's also been our shared history to come to solutions without force (political transitions in Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Portugal, Czech Republic, S. Africa, and the Papacy come to mind in recent years.)  Things get so unbalanced, they need to reset, is the only means for this bloodshed?  Is that the sacrifice for balance?  And even if that does settle it for now, how do you rebuild societies, community after so much hostility?  How do neighbors ever trust one another again after taking sides against each other?  How do we live with uneasy peace?  Is our only option endless retaliation or can we choose differently?  Is peace a real option?  At the risk of being simplistic, under the circumstances, what's the most radical act?  To love? To share? To listen? To attempt to understand the other individual, the other point of view?  To decide for the majority good, softening the blow to the opposition, even it's not in your best interest?  (These have been done in the past, are we too divided to pursue them now?)

There are good things happening in the world, this just seems to be dominating right now.