I’m sitting here, eating a bowl of ice cream, and I’m trying
to determine if I am angry a lot or just sometimes or what. There are times in
my day when I am alone with my thoughts and often they turn to conversations
between me, myself and I. Occasionally I let God in but mostly He just listens.
Over the course of the last several years I have discovered there are several
things that set me off, so to speak. Sometimes I wish it were just one thing,
and then maybe I could just avoid that and move on with my life, but alas. I am
sure there are multiple people who concern themselves with my sanity, but trust
me, I’m good, thanks.
Typically, the things that bug me the most are things
outside of my control, like the economy and world hunger. Other times, it’s as
pithy as the way I see people treat each other, specifically regarding how
inconsiderate some folks are (that one eats at me a lot I’m afraid), or the way
people drive. Mostly, I am too often saddened by watching people claim to be
one thing and live lives that clearly speak to something very different. It’s
more than hypocrisy, really. To suggest mere hypocrisy is to suggest there is a
single topic or characteristic that can be singled out. Instead, what I see are
people who on a wholesale level have painstakingly gone so far as to add the
bumper stickers, buy the t-shirts, watch the right TV shows, listen to the
appropriate radio stations, hang out with the right people and publicly declare
their agenda on social media and yet in every action they are screaming
something completely different.
It is ridiculous how truly sad we are as humans. We indeed
have the power to build up or tear down everything and everyone around us, in
most cases simply with the words we speak. And armed with that power, we tend to
tear down more often than build up. This goes for the words we choose not to
speak as well. How many times have you caught yourself wishing you would have
simply spoken up but you chickened out? Sometimes our silence does as much
damage as our voice. This is certainly true in the arena of politics, where
yours truly has opted out of being a part of, ever again. At least that one
thing doesn’t seem to cause me the drama it used to.
I like the word humanitarian, because it makes me think of
doing nothing more than bettering humanity one human at a time. Today I read a
blog post regarding changing our perspective on how we treat those around us
and if we were a little more diligent and intentional towards those closest to
us, we might begin to understand how we could deposit into their lives,
especially in a way that would leave them better than when we found them. That
very concept is so simple and yet so deeply profound. Why on earth would anyone
wantonly choose to leave someone worse off than how you found them? Is it our
goal to wreck people? Is it our aim to rain on a person’s parade so much so
that they lose hope?
And yet look at the very fabric of society here in America, where
if you don’t vote a certain way or believe a certain way, you must be the enemy.
You’re not even viewed as alternative or different anymore, you are simply
viewed as the enemy. This is what our politicians have done to us; they have
turned us against each other. Interestingly, I have not noticed a very large
contingency arise from this and declare that we will not be ruled by fear.
Instead, I see large swaths of the population casting judgment on those less
fortunate, all for the sake of some sort of misguided principal that was
dictated by a well spoken political leader. Meanwhile, millions of people are
suffering daily because of the hatred of fellow humans. The word humanitarian
is off the table at this point, replaced not with egalitarian but instead with
something very insidious, and that is egoism.
People have personally elevated their own statuses to reveal
that the most important person in the world is themselves. In these cases,
there is no room for anyone else. Not a spouse, not kids, not immediate family
members, not friends but mostly, not anyone who doesn’t explicitly agree with
their political views and agendas. Let’s stop right there. You catch my drift,
of that I am sure. To beleaguer the point is only going to irritate you as much
as it already irritates me.
Think of one person near you. It could be a neighbor, a co-worker,
an old friend, a brother. What is one thing that would bring a smile to their
face, one thing that you could do to brighten their day, one thing you could do
to literally leave them better off than when you found them? This is not a
difficult task, in fact it is quite easy, but it is going to take some changes.
For instance, turn off the talk radio, where egoism rules. Stop participating
in water cooler chats that involve politics unless you think you can learn to
do so in a civil manner.
In short, we all need to grow up. And while we’re doing that
we need to grow together, not apart. And the only way to do that is to water,
or nurture the person next to you. To do so will only make us stronger. To do
so will teach us what it means to be considerate, or more appropriately, to sit
up and take notice of the people around us.
