Imagine

I was watching the news tonight while eating supper, and almost the entire program was covering the woes on Wall Street going on right now. However, there was an exception that really struck me; during some technical difficulties, they switched over to talk about what's going on with the hurricane aftermath in Houston. It was all about kids going to visit the zoo that just reopened today because there's nothing to do at home without power, and about how students whose classes have been cancelled are spending that extra time volunteering, loading up bottled water to take to people who don't have any. One kid they interviewed said, "You know, all of us here volunteering are in the same boat, we don't have any power or water either." It was just such a heartwarming thing to hear on the news...

...and then suddenly Charlie Gibson was back on, apologizing for the technical difficulties and going back to the stock market coverage.

Why can't more of the news be about the heartwarming stuff? I know, drama sells, but seriously....do we really, REALLY need to be drowned in information about how badly the world is doing? We all know we're screwed, people. We all know that the economy is collapsing and that crime is rising. Why beat us over the head with it? Why can't we be reassured that there's still some good in the world?

I wish we could all just focus on the good a little bit more. Maybe that sounds cheesy and overly optimistic, but I mean it. Everyone wants to bitch and complain all the time...and while I know how to do my fair share of bitching and complaining, I get tired of it and feel the urge to compliment someone every now and then. I want to encourage and help and heal. I want to support the people I love in their endeavors, even when it's hard, or even when I don't really know what to DO for support except send them good wishes. We all get trained these days to be suspicious of compliments that come out of nowhere; everyone seems to think that everyone else is just after something.

Maybe I can't change the world, but I'd like to at least try to change my part of it. I'd like to remind people to smile a little more, to help strangers a little more, to just be kind a little more. Honestly, what harm could that do? It might take a little effort sometimes, but I guarantee at the end of the day, if you've managed to make another person smile, you'll be smiling, too.

...good grief, I sound like a Hallmark card. Anyway. Good thoughts to anyone who's reading this. Here's a song lyric. Thank you, John Lennon.

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to live or die for
And no religion, too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope one day you'll join us
And the world will be as one.