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May 20, 2004 What has happened to the “milk of human kindness”? Where is understanding and compassion? Why has all of this disappeared? What has made our lives to bad that we lash out at anyone and everyone we meet on a daily basis? We all know that today’s world can be very harsh to deal with. Everyday we see and hear of all manner of crimes against humanity. There are many days that I would rather not see or hear any of that be it on the television news, radio news or on the printed page. There are days when I would just rather hear about something good and kind that is going on in the world around us. Sensationalism has become a way of life and I might add, not a good way of life. We have become a very cynical society; we see the bad in everything before we see the good. Is this a fault of humankind or has this become second nature because this is what the media feeds us day after day? What is so interesting about seeing someone else in pain or being treated badly by another human being? Personally, I believe that we have become this way by being fed a continual diet of bad news, it is something we have come to expect, and something we look for everywhere. There is also a theory that I personally have that goes back to how we have been treated in our past. I’m sure at many points in our lives we have been treated with everything but kindness and understanding; so then in turn, we tend to treat others in the same way. Now how do we break that cycle? Let us take a step back in time; this will be hard for younger people to relate to yet I would like to give it a shot. The year is 1950 or there about; the entire world is recovering still from World War II, Korea is looming before us and the cold war is winding up. Still in our local neighborhoods we can live, work and play in almost perfect safety. We did not live behind locked doors at that time, we worked without ever a thought that a coworker was going to walk into work one day and shoot everyone in sight and we played outdoors in the warm weather never having to worry about someone carrying us off to God knows where and murdering us in cold blood. This was a time of great discovery…a time of true freedom…a peaceful time in an idyllic setting. We worked, lived, and played in a total sense of security. No one was ever suspicious of his or her neighbors, those were people we trusted and exchanged greetings with everyday of our lives. Let us move forward about 15 years; Korea is now history, the cold war is still around yet we live with it, and yet another war is looming largely in front of us and the Viet Nam conflict is now happening. Also in this time span, we see huge changes in the fields of technology; computers are coming into their own and now from all fronts we see images of things happening almost in real time. No longer are the images of war days or even weeks old; they are hours old and in some cases even minutes old. Moreover, just with the same speed our perspectives of the whole world changes. We now lock our doors; we start to look at everyone differently and with more suspicion. We become more fearful everyday and the world goes to “red alert.” We are afraid of everyone we meet; we no longer let our children play without checking on them several times during an hour, we are afraid that the new person at work is out to get us and everyone else. Fast forward again to today, look around. Our doors now have more locks than hinges, children are no longer able to go play at the parks, or at neighbors homes, even driving to and from work is a major challenge because someone on the roadside may take a shot at us. What a sad scenario life has become. Our news is now filled with bitterness, crime and man’s inhumanity to man. Technology has taken everything and put it up close and personal, now because of that we have all taken a step back and are now afraid of everything in the world around us. We have become like as our ancestors who because of little knowledge of the world they were frightened of anything and everything new to them. Only now, I believe that we have too much knowledge of everything bad in the world and the good is falling by the wayside. Let’s take this down into micronism and look closely at how we react to those around us. Everyday of our lives something small will happen that will affect our reaction to something or someone else. A personal example for me is the fact that when I was married to my ex husband he did not talk with me about anything. He only talked at me. To this very day when someone tries to talk at me I recoil and pull away because I am reminded of what has gone before. I’m aware of the hurt it caused me to feel because it made me feel little and insignificant, it was as if he was talking to or about a small child. Now I fight very hard to not react when someone talks at me. The same with anything else in anyone’s life, we have to learn not to react with hostility because of a past experience. Somehow, we must muster the courage to act instead of react. Since we are talking about the here and now, let’s look at how we now share our daily lives. We have personal interaction with people we know and meet; yet we have an even broader scope that we interact with people which is not so personal and that is the internet. We now can interact with people all over the world, some of whom we will never have a real one on one personal interaction, yet through the miracle of technology, we can talk to on an almost daily basis. Because of this type of interaction, we must be even more diligent about our reactions to things that our friends on line do or say. We do not know their history nor do they know ours; therefore, we must do our human best to be kind and understanding of a person from a totally different background than ours. This is someone we have just met no matter how briefly in an almost anonymous setting and although we may have chatted, many times, we have no idea what really makes him or her tick or what will hurt him or her beyond our comprehension. Why do I mention this interaction because I see so many times that communication breaks down because of one little word or sentence that may push forward a bitter memory, a past or present hurt. Kindness is the key here; we must always be kind in our responses and interaction no matter if those are in person or in the anonymity of the internet. Is this possible in this day and age; truly, I believe it is, if we only walk in the soft and supple shoes of those who have gone before us. It is time to take a step back in time; maybe even to before we were born and walk in the shoes of those whose principles were to harm no other living being and to honor nature in all its wonderful glory. My native American ancestors had the right idea to harm no one or nothing and to only take from this world what they needed to live and keep scared all else. Kindness is scared and there is an old saying, “Kindness begets Kindness,” can we live with that? ------------ About the author: Randii A. Green is someone who has lived life as it comes. Working as a Tax Professional/Office Manager, yet longing to be recognized as a writer of many venues. After 60 years of life I have seem many eras come and go and have the ability to look back and forward with the same objectivity. Although not published as of this date I am still hoping to one day find that one publisher who is willing to take a chance. Email: palm1014@hotmail.com Tell a friend about this site! ------------ |
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