This is why we can't have nice things

 My poor mother.  Her kitchen knives doubled as tools for whatever mischief her husband and children would get into. I don't know how she turned out such feasts with paring knives taken from the kitchen to edge the flagstones, chefs' knives taken to slice wire and cardboard, cleavers used for attempts at taxidermy.  

She learned it was futile to object. Why she didn't hide a set, the nefarious and cabalistic way she would hide cookies and cakes, I'll never know. I just know that the first time I used new knives in my own kitchen, I could have wept for her.

I also deeply relate to her saving "good rags" for particular tasks, like washing windows and polishing silver. Otherwise, the tawdry scraps of our vain lives that had been promoted to useful cleaning rags would end up soaked with dried paint, motor oil or viscera.  

Wastepaper baskets were in every room in a mostly successful attempt to keep the creeping refuse at bay.  My brother's wives were once overheard exclaiming in wonder at how their husbands wanted a wastebasket in every room. If they eventually came around, I don't know, but we have multiple wastebaskets in our home. 

Furniture was victim to the rambunctious play of five young boys. Springs were sprung, fabric was ripped, and gouges appeared in exposed wood. Eventually, we adopted the bifurcated living space comprised of the pristine living room, and the family den where that modern hearth resided - the Motorola.  New furniture was purchased or reupholstered. Peace all around.

On the radio this morning, I heard a suite of short pieces by a composer who was inspired by the dream of world peace. I began skeptically thinking about the prospects for world peace. My mind went to the impoverished people toiling on landfills, mines and plantations, and to the collection of wealthy people who stood behind the recently inaugurated president of the USA.  The disparities between them, the wealthy and the poor are so incredibly vast that I wonder if at any point in human history there has been such a chasm in allocation of wealth and resources.  

The idea of world peace is alluring, but resources on this planet are finite, their distribution inconsistent with the needs of the human population, and the will to transition to alternative resources absent among those who could effect the change.  

On the other end of the continuum, is greed. Those who have more than enough resources, power and comfort wanting more.  The tension between the two appears to drive world conflict and deprivation.  I don't see a chance of that acquisitive part of human nature changing.  I don't see the conditions of the poor and those suffering from conflict improving.  The events of the past decades of industrialization, wars and exploitation cannot be remediated short of wiping the slate clean and starting over. Plague and infestation may do it for us, if history is any indication.

Or, maybe if the attention of the wealthy can be turned to the real needs of the poor, the balance could shift. If those rambunctious leaders playing with lives like toys, like sharp knives could stop for a moment and see us standing by, crestfallen, looking at the nice things in the world being spoiled, then maybe some shred of compassion and perspective may take them down another path.