There is probably more truth to that than we will ever know.

But it does beg the question: what is enough? and when is it enough?

It’s cannibalistic, how we consume the images of their bodies because it satisfies some horrific longing in us to believe that we can live with honour despite their pain.

That’s a good word to describe it. Cannibalistic. I hadn’t thought about it that way before. Yet, at the same time, what types of activities/thoughts fall under the cannibalistic umbrella?

Any activity that doesn’t close the accessibility/privilege/pain gap in a sustainable way is an abstract way of patting ourselves on the back, restoring the “honour” that justifies our lives and our ways. In a sense cannibalistic. Charity falls under this umbrella. Even prayer is cannibalistic then. All of these allow us to go on living despite the pain, because they make us feel better and change little to nothing.

Why do I sound so angry.

Experience and love, my dear, is why you are angry. But as you say, neither love nor anger are enough. =)

So how do we close this gap, if not in physical terms then in perception? How do we take the bricklayer/homeless photos and see beyond the lighting, composition and colours?

There is probably a process of learning that is missing. The learning that makes us think about the meat we eat and the learning that allows us to see canals for the gutters that they are. Conversation is a big part of that learning, but that also is not enough. When was the last time a person with racist tendencies stopped being racist because an imam on a pulpit said racism is bad? Then there is the learning and understanding experiences that we get because of our surroundings (social, cultural and economical), etc. Think ‘American History X’ type learning/understanding/experience.

But even when we’re learned, even when we see… what do we do?