I guess today isn't normal.
Yesterday, while reading through my feed on Facebook, I came across an article about two people, a mother and her son, who, though they were both in good health, died from some sort of mysterious "flu" strain. I noticed this article because it was posted by my cousin, whose daughter died in a similar fashion a few years ago. So I read the article and made the mistake of scrolling down to the comments where I was astounded.
The thoughts were not of condolences for the family or concern for public health. No. It was a pretty long rant on how we hate this politician or that one, how people who identify with this political party or that one are stupid, lazy, greedy, etc. and how colleges are taught by liberal professors who aren't interested in teach journalism but rather producing clone for the media centers that distort the truth. (FYI, I'm paraphrasing here.)
But wait a minute. What was the story about? Oh yeah.
Two people are dead.
They are gone and they leave behind people who are grieving. And no one can explain why they are dead.
And we (as a collective) take this opportunity to be nasty and hateful instead of recognizing that by the Grace of God, the fates, karma, whatever you want to call it, this story isn't about us.
We are a nation... no, we are a world... divided by hate. We watch from our couches while people around the world are kidnapped, tortured, sold into slavery, raped and murdered and instead of turning on our compassion and empathy, we play the blame game and unleash an anonymous rant filled with nastiness that isn't even germane to the topic.
We are watching our country (the USA, for those of you who found this blog from somewhere else) cut off our nose to spite our faces. Where words like liberal and conservative and compromise have become ash in our mouths. People... they are just words. It's the venom behind us that is toxic to our lives. And the people in charge love it. Because we are so focused on hating on each other that they, and I'm talking all parties involved, can continue unchecked.
But it's not our fault.
Yes. I said it. It's not our fault.
It's so much easier to focus on the negative than to retrain our brains to see the positive. Don't believe me? See what the experts have to say in this TED Talk. (Be warned, it's ten minutes of actual scientific exploration as to why we are negative.)
So we're screwed, right? We can never change this cycle. We are doomed to continue the circle of hate and negativity until the Mothership arrives and aliens invade when we're too caught up in our lives to even notice we've been taken over.
(Sorry for the dramatic analogy... I'm reading Rick Yancy's 5th Wave series and everything I experience is being explained by an invasion. Like the small cut on the back of my head... it is probably the insertion site of the implant that will systematically zap my brain when they realize I've caught on to their plan. Oh, wait... I digress. And, for the drone hovering above my house reading this, I was just kidding. And could you please stop looking... I'm still in my PJs.)
The whole point of this rant is that I'm tired of being surrounded by the negative. I feel like it's consuming me. I'm afraid to check out Facebook or read the news because it's just more of the same. Serious story compounded by negative politically and socially motivated rants that forget the whole point of this is that two people are dead.
So to sum it up, our planet is doomed.
Or is it?
Could it be that it's not too late to change the social consciousness?
If that were true than someone would have done a TED Talk about it.
Oh wait. They did!
Simple, right?
Not so much. We have to want to change. Here is my challenge for you. Join me on the quest to make a difference in our world one person at a time.
Be a Difference Maker with me.
Are you up for it? Or will you sit back and be an observer in your own life?
Already think you have the positive thing working for you? Then pass it on.
Check back on Mondays for a once a week update on my attempt to make a difference in the world that starts with me.
In the meantime, I issue you a challenge: Perform one random act of kindness and report back not what you did but how it made you FEEL. (Yes, I do have a degree in Psychology, thank you for asking.)
In the meantime, BE FEARLESS in the face of negativity.
