Maneater

I’ve noticed that a condition of most of the older generation is that they believe society is collapsing and the world is getting worse and worse. I am nearly positive this is not a new revelation. Every generation of people, as they grow older and see the world change before their very eyes, most often mistake that change as proof of societal degeneration. That might be partly true. To be completely honest, I don’t have a lot of room to talk. I’m scared to death of change.

But as one who takes a more historical perspective on these sorts of things I realized early on how preposterous the idea that the world is always getting worse truly is.

The world, and society, certainly ebbs and flows. It has its ups and downs. I imagine God being a little more pleased at some times, and a little less pleased at others. But one thing is for certain, societies DO get better too. They have to.

If society was constantly spiraling downward than we should not be able to find any historical reference to previous times where things were even worse than they are today. Nay, today would be the absolute most degenerated the world had ever been. And tomorrow would be even worse.

Fortunately, it doesnt work like that. We have a wealth of examples of past times where society was FAR less stable, FAR less fair, FAR less free than it is today. There are truly too many to count.

What is the lesson here?

Just smile and nod when those old codgers drone on and on about the world being so terrible. They could be right. But be assured it won’t stay that way forever.  Be assured that life as this earth knows it goes up just as much as it goes down.

And if you are ever feeling like you just might agree with those old codgers, just take a walk and smile and say hello to those random people walking by. Their smiles and nods in response will prove to you otherwise.

Assume Awesomeness

Ever notice how we, as a society, assume everybody is an idiot?  I touched on this a while back, but the thought never quite left me.  Everywhere we go we see signs that prove that we assume everybody is an idiot.  Even our own personal behavior proves it.  How many times have we seen somebody speed past and think to ourselves, “slow down you idiot.”  Yet, admittedly, if I knew that person speeding by was a good friend of mine I’d smile and laugh.  Why the difference?  Because I knew that my friend was NOT an idiot and probably had good reason to be driving as such.  And that is the crux of the difference.  When dealing with an unknown public we, most often, assume idiocy.  When dealing with our friends and family we, most often, assume awesomeness. 

What a great world we would live in if we all just assumed awesomeness all the time.  Why can’t we look at the guy who just cut us off and think, “wow, he’s in quite the rush!  I sure hope everything is okay…”  instead of berating him.  Why can’t we just assume that people are smart and have good intentions? 

I’m not blind.  I see some problems with this mindset.  But I can also see that assuming awesomeness would lead to a lot less stress and anger.  So much stress and anger is due to the assumption that everybody else is wrong and assuming everybody is an idiot.

People can be idiots.  I sign my name at the top of that list!  But why do we automatically jump to that conclusion rather than jumping to the conclusion that they are actually smart, awesome and have very valid reasoning?

Assume Awesomeness.

A Day of Reflection

I headed up to Big Bear City for a funeral of a friend of mine. He was a bit younger than me, but I wanted to go to support his brother, who I know a little better. It was a tragic death and a tough funeral.

During the service it was mentioned a couple times that we just don’t know when our last hour will be. We don’t know when the last time we will see a friend. We don’t know the last time we will give each other a big hug.

One young school friend walked up to the microphone and, in tears explained how, even though it was not a “manly” thing to tell your friends you love them, they truly did love their friend. They never got to say it in life. Funny how tragedy has a way of breaking down silly barriers.

But it brought a very real question to my heart.

Do our friends know how much we appreciate them? Do they realize how much we think about them and truly trust them? Have we ever told them that?

I’d hate to wait till it was too late…

ONEFUNNYRUNNER.COM

Just in case you hadn’t heard, a new running blog has been started! This blog is a collaberated effort between a small group of us who are training for our first half-marathon.

www.onefunnyrunner.com

Bookmark it and enjoy!

Quote of the Day

~Quote of the Day~

 

“Kids, you tried your best and you failed miserably. The lesson is, never try”

 

-Homer Simpson