The eternal spirit
War in the Middle East and Sri Lanka, earthquakes, the aftermaths of bomb blasts and tsunamis, children beating up their aged parents, a man raping his maid and then saying it was consensual...
Sigh.....
That was all in the Straits Times this morning. Talk about having a dose of reality together with my morning coffee and yoghurt (decided to be a good girl today and eat yoghurt since I didn't gym this morning ;-) ). I'm already depressed and it's not even 8am yet!
But is that really all that is happening in the world today? Where are the stories of people rushing into burning buildings to rescue a stranger, volunteers in Africa fighting for the lives of those starving to death or dying of AIDs, or stories of people giving up an organ for a loved one or even a mere acquaintance? Or something as simple as an elderly man giving up his seat on the bus for a pregnant mother? I believe, I want to believe that such stories outnumber the disasters and the stories about how people are cruel and evil.....but the latter will always be more newsworthy than the former and hence will always dominate the papers.
Maybe we should petition the local papers to set aside a page each day for good news....news that will inspire and encourage, news that will help us become better people and better citizens of the world? We are better than we think we are, more courageous, more noble and more courteous that we choose to be. All it takes is for each of us to reach within ourselves to find that memory that we are all the same, inside, where it counts. Only then can we reach beyond ourselves to the person next door, in the next country or towards a stranger in another land half a world away.
Am I an optimist? Yah, maybe. But it's a good dream to have, isn't it?
Sigh.....
That was all in the Straits Times this morning. Talk about having a dose of reality together with my morning coffee and yoghurt (decided to be a good girl today and eat yoghurt since I didn't gym this morning ;-) ). I'm already depressed and it's not even 8am yet!
But is that really all that is happening in the world today? Where are the stories of people rushing into burning buildings to rescue a stranger, volunteers in Africa fighting for the lives of those starving to death or dying of AIDs, or stories of people giving up an organ for a loved one or even a mere acquaintance? Or something as simple as an elderly man giving up his seat on the bus for a pregnant mother? I believe, I want to believe that such stories outnumber the disasters and the stories about how people are cruel and evil.....but the latter will always be more newsworthy than the former and hence will always dominate the papers.
Maybe we should petition the local papers to set aside a page each day for good news....news that will inspire and encourage, news that will help us become better people and better citizens of the world? We are better than we think we are, more courageous, more noble and more courteous that we choose to be. All it takes is for each of us to reach within ourselves to find that memory that we are all the same, inside, where it counts. Only then can we reach beyond ourselves to the person next door, in the next country or towards a stranger in another land half a world away.
Am I an optimist? Yah, maybe. But it's a good dream to have, isn't it?
posted by Heather @ 7:50 AM
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