Louis Armstrong crooned “And I think to myself, what a wonderful world”.
Sadly, at times like this, I do not think it is so wonderful.
After spending a large majority of my weekend enjoying life and somewhat oblivious to things going on in the world, I came home to turn on the news to update after update of tragedy and hate. Regardless if this horrific tragedy was based on hated of peoples sexual orientation or based on hatred for a race/population of people, it was base on hate. This shooter felt such hatred that these people were so different from him that he felt it was okay to end their innocent lives. There was no tolerance, there was no acceptance, there was nothing but pure hate.
Prior to this, last week it seemed like every time I looked at social media, I was bombarded with report after report of the horrific acts of a male who seemed to blame everyone but himself for forever changing the life of an innocent young women. He was upset that he perceived his “20 minutes” of wrongdoing should not ruin the rest of his life. Seriously? Did he ever think about how that “20 minutes” would forever change the life of that young woman? I read an article about how he blamed his “poor decisions” on alcohol and the college drinking culture. I am completely sickened. If this person can’t take ownership of brutally raping an unconscious young woman, then what else is he going to do in the future and blame everyone but himself? He feels that 6 months in jail is too much punishment? This poor girl is going to relive the horror for the rest of her life.
Where am I going with this? I wish I wasn’t going anywhere. I am wishing that people in this world wouldn’t think that their lives are so much more important and that their beliefs were so much more important than everyone else. I wish people would stop thinking that they can hurt others and not face any sort of consequences. I wish people would take ownership of wrongdoings and instead of placing blame on others, fix the problems. I wish people would accept, tolerate, and support others differences. I wish that my son and all other children weren’t being brought up in a world like this. I wish we didn’t have to teach them “tolerance” and “acceptance”, it should just be a given!
What I wish for is everyone to live by 3 easy words: Live, Laugh, Love
I have had a decal on the wall of my home for many years with that exact phrase. My son once asked me what it meant. My explanation to him was:
Live: This is your life, no one else can live it for you, so you need to make the best of what you have and not dwell on what you don’t have.
Laugh: You only get one life, so laugh as much as you can. Laugh at even the small stuff. Happiness is what makes life great. Try not to let sadness and upset take over your life.
Love: Regardless of what material things you have in life, nothing will ever amount to what Love can give you. Love long, love hard, love often.
Your definition of each of these words may be different than mine but if everyone lived by them, the world would be a much better place.
cathyunfiltered.com 