The Darkness

I jokingly say I should stop reading the news.  Every day it's a different story about people being killed, political unrest.  The news has turned into a stream of uncontrollable hate seems to be overtaking our world. I spend most of my time looking for a human interest story.  Something that makes me smile, or restores my faith in humanity. 

When we live in a world where three teenagers gun down a young man because they just wanted to kill someone, you need something to make you smile, to give you hope, to make you realize that the world is not full of hate and anger and pain.  That, while we focus on the suffering and the violence, there are still good people out there. 

Recently I read a blog called Single Dad Laughing.  I had been directed there because of this post.  I have to tell you, I have never felt so moved in my life.  Seriously, go there, read that post, and just let it sink in.  Let his message just settle into your brain, and then go over it again. 

If you are too busy to read the article, then let me sum up the general idea.  Love people.  Love everyone.  Love them because they are who they are, and they have struggled, and they have made mistakes, and they may not be your idea of what a person should be.  Love them. 

Don't just love them, but give a damn about them.  Give a damn about how your words effect them.  Give a damn about how shutting someone out, ignoring someone because they are that ever present, ever feared and loathed "other", can crush that person. 

The post on his blog touched me enough that I felt like I had to share it.  Seriously, check out his blog.  There are other amazing posts in there.  There are other amazing stories. 

So, now it's time for my own little moment here.  My message for you.  A message we can all strive to live by. Do not just try to be good.  Try to do good.  Do not just try to do good.  Do good.  Be a light in a world that seems to grow darker every day.  Be the hope for someone else.  Do not do it to be looked up to.  Do not do it to be respected, or well liked.  Do it because you want to.  Do it because you strive to make this world a better place not just for yourself, or those you love, but for everyone. We will not always succeed.  I will not always succeed.  Still, even if the goal cannot be reached, it should be in the back of your mind at all times. 

If you fail, and you will fail, just as I will fail, do not give up.  We are human.  We have emotions that we don't always have control over.  The best thing you can do is to see a failure as something to push you forward.  A failure should not stop you.  It should motivate you.  It should light a fire under you, or inside of you. 

Instead of letting the darkness stop you, you should strive to stop the darkness.  We won't win the war, but dammit, in this one situation the battle is more important then the war.