I decided to write this blog because I have a lot of thoughts about what’s happening in the world in 2016 and my family thinks I need to record my words and feelings about the world around me. The last thing I want is a video or audio recording of my daily rants, but I do like the idea of getting my words down or at least out of me so I don’t end up like Michael Douglas’ character in Falling Down.
Selfishness is an epidemic. Intellectually, I understand each of us has a natural instinct to protect what’s ours and as a result we become more and more selfish. It’s human nature. I live in Southern California along with 19 million other people and we all want our own little piece of the world to be just ours. But, it is my deepest belief that we are put on earth to resist the darker side of human nature and instead try to be better than our basic instincts.
In my beach neighborhood for example, some people leave their day-at-the-beach trash in the gutters which wash directly into the ocean. The gutters are marked that they drain to the ocean and still there is no action taken to clean up or be responsible. I’m guessing it’s mostly tourists. They don’t live here so who cares, right? But consider this, the man who’s front yard and gutter they’ve trashed may have lived in that house for 25 years and now couldn’t afford to buy that same house at its current market value. He’s not the privileged rich guy they imagine him to be because he’s lucky enough to live at the beach. He shouldn’t be forced to clean up after their day at the beach. And, if he doesn’t clean it up, the trash gets swept into the ocean where it pollutes the water for all. It’s maddening.
I’d like to believe that people are basically good and don’t mean to do these things, (I’m incredulous about that) but even considering that they don’t mean to do it, does that absolve them from responsibility? Society works best when EVERYONE works as a team to maintain it. Instead, we have a few people who care and pick up the slack for the people who don’t. When those few people get burned out, worn down and resentful it leads to an even bigger problem and society as a whole suffers.
So people please: put your cart away at the store, throw your coffee cup in the trash when you finish it, clean up after your pet, hold the door for others, put down your phone, smile at others, use your blinker and for the sake of all humanity clean the damn toilet if you shit on it. It’s the little things that matter.
I prefer to laugh 