Today, September 22, 2008, the economy of the US is in a shambles and the government is using hundreds of billions of tax dollars (the only kind of dollars they have) to bail out the over extended financial institutions; gas prices continue to be high even though crude oil has dropped; hurricane victims in the south deal with where to live, how to live and what to do about everything that was lost; Bolivia is a country that is torn with civil unrest and violence; Haiti and Cuba are rebuilding from summer hurricanes; US troops in Afghanistan and Iraq are trying to help establish a more peaceful way of life in the Middle East; and slowly and quietly the Earth slips past the invisible plane that marks the Autumnal Equinox and in the Northern Hemisphere fall begins.
For many, the attitudes of fall began with the kids returning to school or with the first football game of the season. For some it won't feel like fall until baseball begins post-season play or the first leaves start turning to brilliant colors. No matter, time marches on.
Time pays little attention to the matters of the world. It just continues its endless cycle as the Earth spins on its axis and orbits around its Sun. It's true for many of us, too. The big picture is just too much for us to think about in our own day-to-day grind. We'll do pretty much the same thing this Monday that we did last Monday and next week we'll do the same thing again. We'll shake our heads at world events and go on about our business. We are in as predictable a pattern as the Summer Solstice followed by the Autumnal Equinox...and time marches on.
It's easy to convince ourselves that we can't make a difference in the whole world picture. While that may be true, we can make a difference in our little corner of the picture. What if everyone reading this (all 12 of you) decided that today--just today--we'll go out of our way to do something nice for somebody that we don't know. Twelve people would get an unexpected blessing! Maybe you'd want to share this with another person or maybe that blessed person would do something for somebody--we could start a revolution of kindness. If time is going to carry us along in its continuing march, we may as well march along with a smile on our face, a song on our lips and kindness in our hearts.
Have a great day. I have to find somebody to assault with kindness!
John
Did you watch "Pay it Forward" this weekend?
ReplyDeleteI read your first paragraph and promptly slit my wrists. As I was bleeding out and reading on I realized, "OH NO, he was going somewhere else with this thought." Get out the super glue, fix myself up!
OK here I go. Out into the world to do good. First stop, taking care of my daughters flat tire.
Hmmmmmmmm kill em with kindness ehhhhhh.
ReplyDeleteI will work towards doing a kind act sometime this week.
Keep you posted.
Oh and nothing makes me madder than to know that gas should be lots cheaper. We tolertate a lot of bull from our leaders these days.
Ciao
I don't pretend to understand all the ramifications of doing or not doing a bail-out and what it means to our economy but I do find it intersting that we can afford to bail out those who make bad loans but not those who take bad loans.
ReplyDeleteHow is it that our experts in D.C. and all across the country didn't see this coming? What's so wrong with a little regulation?
I want to know that management of these corporations will not continue to live in obscene overabundance before we lend them one dime. Yeah, like Bush is concerned about that.
Oh, grumble, grumble, whine, moan... okay, I'll do something nice for somebody today. It doesn't have to be Mike, does it?
ReplyDeleteI like this post very much. AND, I watched Pay It Forward and loved it.
ReplyDeleteI too am going out to 'assault with kindness'.
A well-written post, John.
ReplyDelete