"no one's coming"...

...it's up to us."  Sounds like something you would see on a bumper sticker while waiting for the light to change. That might have come from a movie script or dialog from a series on tv about the apocalypse. Could be a line from a character in a story about the last ragged remnant of surviving humans trying to out match some evil force as the baddies are coming over the hill enmasse.

I've had it on my mind in the past couple of weeks, after hearing it quoted. Something that could be applied to most every situation you encounter through out the day, week, year - both small and monumental. Inconsequential daily tasks that it is sadly obvious no one else is going to take the time to do: take out the trash, mop the floor, put those dishes that have been sitting in the sink for three days in the dish washer.

As well as the really big stuff: who is going to pick up the mess after a political stand-off results in a world wide disaster? What the planet is facing due to powerful people denying the reality of climate change/global warming/rising oceans? Thousands of plastic bags someone must think just disappear, when they wash into the rivers and oceans due to human indifference? Half the population of the planet living without access to clean, safe potable water? (While those of us fortunate enough to have it in surplus waste it without conscious thought.)

There are times when I have failed to be sympathetic when hearing some tale of woe, thinking while listening to the litany: 'this is a mess of your own making.' After hearing someone tell of a trip to central America and seeing people walk five miles with jugs to get safe drinking water from a spring, I realize how thankful I should be for drinking water at the turn of a faucet. As well as the useful, utility of household appliances, electricity to run them and the financial resources to pay for it all.

Taking too much for granted: time to be thankful for living in America. But also realizing and understanding: 'no one's coming, we're on our own', so we need to be much better stewards of what we have.