Humans vs Monsters

I don't know where to start......

I am speechless. Horrified. Frightened. The source of this? The report in yesterday's papers about beggars in our midst. Not just any beggar, but beggars belonging to syndicates .... and highly disfigured with acid and missing limbs. I'm not afraid of the beggars, no. I'm horrified at the prospect that these might be victims of human trafficking.

These beggars were so badly disfigured that if their family members met them, they'll never recognize them. Beggars who lost their fingers to avoid detection by their authorities. No fingers means no fingerprints. It's the saddest thing. How did we, as humans, ever come to this stage?

I am horrified at the cruelty that my fellow human beings are capable of. Distraught for the family members of the victims who lose a loved one, never knowing where they are. Saddened for the lives of the victims who will now become slaves for a lifetime.

I wonder why we go on labelling mythical beings as monsters and fear ghouls when what we should really be doing is fear our human brothers and sisters for the cruelty that they are capable of. They are the real monsters in our midst.

Bookworms unite!

I went to the Big Bad Wolf books warehouse sale last week with my daughter and had such an interesting time. If anything ever gets me excited, it's a book sale. Book sales are my retail therapy equivalent to shopping for clothes and other girly stuff. For a time I actually wondered if I'm the weird one out but last week's experience at the book sale put that thought to rest. I met many, many bookworms while waiting for the book people to open their doors to us into book heaven. You know who the bookworms are - we are the ones who are there right at the front of the gates excitedly straining our necks to see what's inside and planning all our strategies. Quite ridiculous, actually. We'd compare notes and share stories, and I was very pleased to find similar-minded people who actually thought nothing of spending huge amounts of money on books because we think it's worth it. Like they say, birds (or in this case, should it be worms?) of a feather flock together ... and there were many birds (worms?) that day. Not only that, we all practically had the same thoughts on lots of other topics too - shopping for clothes, for instance. To us, it seems that if a shirt fits - great! Now can we have all five colors of the same shirt and get this shopping over with! It's so different when we talk about books. The mood changes entirely - everyone gets excited and we're all suddenly talking like old friends. Someone commented that bookworms are not environmentally friendly since trees have to be cut down to feed our habit. That's true, but a bookworm will never give up the joy of holding the book in their hands. Oddly, we just don't find the same joy by reading a book over the computer screen. It somehow takes away a very substantial part of the fun of reading a book. We bought lots of books at the book sale but it just never seemed to be enough. We are eagerly waiting for the next sale again and next time I will be even more prepared! For the time being, I am eager and happy to just lose myself in the books that we purchased last week.