There is theft, dishonesty and depression in this world. It is laced with deception, murder, rape and perversion. Babies are killed every day through the heartless acts of abortion and middle-aged men are stealing from senior citizens. Another teacher is sent to prison for having sexual relations with her 13-year old student. Brothers and sisters having babies.
Okay, we get it. It's a pretty scary world we live in.
But get this. I'm about to let you in on a little secret that very few people these days are fully aware of. Now don't go spreading this around too much because it will completely throw off the balance of this world and every little drama queen and king will not have anything to talk about.
There is still good in this world.
That's it. That's my point. But, alas, I find these days it's very hard to find people interested in the good things happening in this world. Of course, a statement like this will get the naysayers going on about how "you can't hide the bad things in life. That won't make it go away." That's a good point. Glad to hear that because if that were the case, all the good things in the world would no longer exist because everyone seems to be hiding that. Maybe that's why negative people tend to forget to talk about the good things. Maybe it's because they have neglected the good things for so long that they have forgotten that every day someone is caring for a helpless friend; a father is helping her daughter to believe she is beautiful; a child is protecting a smaller child from a bully; a grandmother is taking in a stray puppy who has been hanging around her house for the last week. If that is the case, what is there to do about it?
Well, for starters, for those of you who insist in looking towards the bad things in life, forcing it on others, well, I get the point. I know there is bad in this world and no amount of your neverending bombartment of depressing stories, tragic anecdotes and woeful banter will cause me to buckle to the school of "man, this worlds sucks." We know. We know. Now get over it. For pete's sake, if this world is in such shoddy condition, is it not even more astounding, amazing, just plain awesome that something good is happening in this world? Heck, we should all be going on and on about that act of goodness because it's apparently so rare because people very rarely talk about it.
But I don't blame the whole lot of them, those naysayers. I blame the media. That oh-so-reliable news media that I can trust to bring me the real-life happenings of every day without the slightest hint of sensationaliasm or liberal biases. I blame them for making a story about a tragic outcome something bigger than it really is. I blame them for telling the same negative story after negative story at 6 o'clock and then again at ten. Only to be supported by print and radio. That's all that is happening in this world. Bad, bad, bad, bad things. Nothing good ever happens here. Nah, we've got nothing. The funny thing is, if you start paying attention to those very informative news stories and start grouping them into categories, you'll find that the categories are very few and taking out the different names and locations, you start thinking, "Hey, wait. Didn't I just hear this story last week?" That's because that's what they do. They take the same tragic story that garnered so many reactions and seek out a similar story because they know that we peons will forget we just heard that story a week ago and will be overly shocked again the very next week and we will go and tell everyone about it again. And again.
And now, amidst all this election brouhaha, well, it just seems to become more concentrated as far as the subject matter goes. Just once I would like to walk into a break room and hear someone say to someone else, "Your candidiate did some not so nice things but my candidate also did some not so nice things. Never mind that. Let's talk about something positive." Are we all truly shocked that the candidates have made mistakes in their pasts? Yes, I know it's important that we understand the background of our soon-to-be leaders but really, is digging up old dirt really that beneficial? Are we at all that surprised when we hear that one of the candidates (heck, always BOTH candidates) have done something not so stellar? And then we attribute it to who that candidate is today. But that only applies for the candidate that we do not support. When it is that person, we are realy quick to accept the tarnishment and all jump aboard to cry, "wolf!" but when it is one of our own, the very one that we have talked up so much in the past months, we have to do some research. We have to dig deep to make sure that this information is definitely not true. And we are even willing to accept the most minute, shoddy excuse we can find to say, well, that was then and I am sure (s)he's sorry now and there was a misundertanding and that was someone else. Look, just like my statement about all the other bad things that people tend to get obsessed with squawking about, it happens. Get over it.
But the big question now is if our candidates are inevitably going to have done bad things in the past (and may even be doing them now) and the world is filled with the bad things happening everyday, what are we supposed to do about? Is there any hope?
Well, there is. And the hope is in each one of us doing whatever the heck we can to counteract it. Where something bad is happening in this world, you can cancel it out by doing something good. Heck, do two good things and that will get you one step ahead of the bad thing. Yes, yes, I know this sounds like ridiculous fodder and is oversimplified to the point that it seems like a joke, but I mean it. We all have accepted the idea that negative stuff is going on but does it do anyone any good to be a supporter of it. Yes, I said supporter. When you go around and spread the word about how bad this world is, you are not doing anything to help rid the world of the bad. You are merely reinforcing the fact that this world sucks. You think you are making people aware and that it will help fight it but you will find that a lot of us are scared little children and when we get our heads filled with all this negatively, we begin to lose hope and only want to crawl into a hole and hopes it all ends quickly and when the world explodes, it won't hurt so bad. You see, you're only feeding the beast when you go around spreading the plague further. Negative attitudes breed more negative attitudes and can be like a flaming line of dominoes all falling over and withering away and dying instead of doing what they can to stop it.
So, again I say, be positive. Embrace being positive. I'm not saying you have to pretend this is a perfect world, because it is not. But you can acknowledge it as such and pray it gets better and then stop the spreading of the germ that can eat us all up from the inside if we let it. Does that make sense?
Okay, I'm going to stop being negative now.
rise early on that day with shining faces...
13 years ago
3 comments:
Seriously, amen! I agree, we need to be talking more about the good. And both candidates have shady pasts and even shady stuff today (which I wrote a really long blog post on something similarly related about three weeks ago, but haven't posted it yet...don't know if it's worth it, but I am glad to have read yours), and it's really made me challenge myself and made me ask questions I have never asked before when voting. This will be my third election I will be voting in. I am way more interested in what each candidate IS going to accomplish while in office. I don't feel like I am a follower of my "party" any longer, but at the same time, I'm not a follower of the other "party". I find myself in the middle, and for the first time opening myself up to the honest realization that there is not (in my own opinion) a such thing as a moral or a non-moral candidate. I have realized how naive and uninformed I'd been in past elections at knowing hard facts on BOTH sides. I don't want to be uninformed (or misinformed) any longer. I think it's my personal duty to read and learn about what the "plans" are for each candidate once they take charge of the nation. It's not enough to sit around and complain about what the other candidate is or isn't doing/saying. All of us have shady things that we are not proud of, but I guess I'm a sucker in that I choose to believe that the majority of us learn from those things/mistakes and choose to do better in the future while moving forward from the past. The past will eat you alive. We have to move on and we have to look at what is being done right now. In this moment. (Not just in politics, but in life.)
Another thing...a local NWA preschool handed out a full one page, one-sided point of view letter to every parent supporting the candidate (for State Rep.) that they thought was the one who "wouldn't shut down Christian schools" and then ends it with "it's not about being a Republican or a Democrat, it's about choosing the best person for the position". This is what I'm talking about. It comes across as a careless message, as if you could only possibly be a Christian if you were also a Republican. I could write an entire post on this alone.
And I think that I am blessed every day by good people doing good things just because, and most of the time, I don't even realize the blessing. But it's a great feeling when I do acknowledge it, and it is truly humbling. We should be recognizing the good because we truly were all made in God's image and He is GOOD. When I think of my son (which is about every single second of my life, literally), I think how amazing this world is and how it's our (mine and Aaron's) duty, heck our GIFT and PRIVILEGE, to guide him along in life, directing him to know the difference between good decisions and bad decisions and allowing him to make his own decisions, even if that means he falls. He is capable of getting back up (sometimes he needs our assistance). Children breathe life into hope and ultimately "the good" in this world. And it starts with us, the adults. We all need to check ourselves at the door every now and then. :)
And I like your idea of counteracting the bad by doing one (or even TWO) good things. It's so true. We will never get anywhere in this endless cycle if we don't step forward to make a change.
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