Originally posted on Facebook HERE
It’s a dark photo today. Taken from the garage door. Darkness seems to be hanging heavy on our country these days. The election is bringing out the worst in us. So much anger. So much hatred. So many lies. Are memes more important than issues these days? The ads are horrible. The relentless texts – ugh. And it seems like we’re losing whatever civility we ever had with each passing day. I refuse to take part in it. Not the election, we already voted – but all the bullshit surrounding it. The anger and the hatred – I will meet it with love. The lies and misrepresentations – I will meet them with honesty. The judgement of others – who am I to do that? I refuse to participate. I won’t participate. Hatred begets hatred, and if we allow it to fester it compounds. And compound interest, when it works in our favor, is a fantastic thing. But not when it’s going the other way. I don’t have the time in my day to be around people who judge and lie and hate. And, as much as I sometimes feel the need to retaliate, in so doing, what does that make me? Judgmental and angry. I can’t do it. In my own small way, I will do everything in my power to make the anger stop here. I will not jump immediately to judgement. I will not spend time with people whose word is not their bond. A “handshake” deal with me will mean something. A quick internet search says that in 2023, 74% of Americans believed in God. Are we seeing God’s love in 74% of our social media posts these days? Have you ever seen it in any political ad recently?… it’s all anger, all done to make you hate the other person. To judge them. We all have our preferences, myself included. We do judge people by their actions. It can be hard not to let hatred in when we see them as so foreign to anything we believe in. Murderers and rapists, etc – need to be judged and put away for the good of society. And people who we judge to be someone we can’t be around need to be removed from our immediate circle whenever possible. We don’t need to argue with them, we don’t need to hate them. We can simply say – I need to focus on the people who bring me up, not down. I need to be with people who fill my heart with gratitude, not anger. I need to be with people who I can trust. And, in return – I will be all those things to others. And maybe someday we can get to a point where we realize we’re all in it together, even the people who we’ve removed from our lives. Right now, if the country was a sports team I’d say we’re the New York Jets – all over the place, everyone’s angry and confused, and we’re getting nowhere. One thing admire about the Packers these days is the “team” mentality. We need more of that on a national level. Seems like the internet has helped us get uglier to each other. In most cases, we can have different views and still be friends. And, really – if you have that person in your life who just inflames your anger every time you see them or read their posts, why engage? Walk away. Unfriend. Find the love again. Let kindness begin with you. And let’s pray that our politicians start to understand that we, as a country, would prefer to be united. We can and will disagree on policy, we always have, but hatred stoked leads to wars. And it’s starting to feel like a civil war already. Let’s try our best to let some light in, whenever possible.
