“The Girl on the Other Side” by Inspired Spaghetti

My trembling eyes struggle to make out the distressed figure staring back at me. I strive to understand why, a mirror, something whose outcome should be so predictable, fails to show me any truth every time I come into its view. My fingertips smear the reflection as I so desperately try to make a connection with the girl on the other side. With once clench of a fist and strong hit forward; she could disappear in seconds. Her existence lost into the small shards of glass stuck between my bleeding fingers, but destroying her would not be a solution to my problems. The girl on the other side would still haunt me in screen doors, car windows, or the shiny part of my dinner spoon, she will find a way to make me remember her pained face.

Yes, we may bare the same forehead scar from falling down the stairs at age two or the long brown hair desperately in need of a trim, but her eyes tell me different. Her eyes speak a truth, about true struggle, one that I thought I hid well from the world. Maybe the absence of truth, the one that angered me so greatly, was there the whole time, but I chose to ignore it. That is the hard thing about a reflection; it is shows us so much about ourselves, and it is scary.

I start to notice all my flaws that make up the reflection; the dark circles under my eyes, my chapped lips, or the scars of my acne, I am very far from perfect. But I also start to notice all the many other things about me; the smile lines from funny jokes, or the highlights of my hair from days in the sun, these things are apart of me too--not perfect but still beautiful. With the thought of this, I start to see a grin appear on the girl in front of me. I start to realize that seeing the beauties in the reflection before me, help ease the pain of all the flaws I perceive to have.

As time passes, I understand why she stands before me; her presence aids me in understanding who I am. I realize my internal struggles make me prone to an overwhelming amount of ignorance, allowing me to doubt my own reflection, but I am inclined to entertain the possibility that the truth I had doubted to exist can be easily found by the flaws I found about the girl on the other side.

“Solace in Pusillanimous Service” by Hummingbird

Americans have a tendency to find solace in the idea that they are helping people or doing something for a better cause; you see it all the time, plastered all over morning television news and popping up as notifications on expensive phones. “US to Send Aid to Puerto Rico” or “US Troops to Donate Thousands to Struggling African Countries”. The United States is built off of the ideal that it is the duty of the nation to aid other countries- however, have you noticed that this civic duty is only provided to areas that are presumably weaker than the US itself? Let us think of the 2016 terrorist attack in Nice, France. When 87 people were killed due a mass shooting, the United States offered no support except than keeping France within their prayers. Same thing for the May 2017 Manchester terrorist attack; between 250-520 people were injured or killed as a result, and the US merely offered prayers or well-wishes instead of legitimate aid in terms of supplies or reinforcement. The US believes that helping others is heroic and worthy of utmost praise, so why hasn’t the country legitimately helped its allies?

Let us now remember the 2010 Haitian earthquake. Immediately did the United States spring into action; sending countless troops to Haiti and creating nationwide fundraisers to raise money for the country. Citizens took pity on Haitians; sending over money, food, clothing, and other helpful resources over to organizations that promised to aid the struggling country. This, however, contrasts heavily with the prayer-oriented aid that the United States had against its allies 6 and 7 years later. The US took action for Haiti because it saw a struggling country, thus felt the need to swoop in and correct-the-wrong by sending over everything and everyone it could afford to send over. While the US masqueraded its arrogance with promises of saving Haitians from poverty, starvation, and disease, the country was realistically taking the resources given to them by the citizens and using them all for the country itself. Besides, has anyone actually seen coverage of the remaining Red Cross supplies being delivered to Haiti? Has anyone heard any progress of the country’s development aside from political turmoil, discourse and further poverty? If the US is so adamant on aiding other nations and sweeping them up from the possibility of ruin, then why has the state of Haiti only worsened since 2010?

Essentially, the solace from this perceived aid comes from the idea that the US is helping somebody somewhere. This country cares not of where the supplies go or what the final impact of their targeted “help” is, but the idea of help is what throws coal into the fiery arrogance the US contains. As long as the country can visually present itself as helping others, therefore the state of the country is stable and citizens can once again find solace in perceived heroism.