This post originally appeared on LinkedIn
The world is not binary.
Why can’t we see that? What is our great failing as a species that we have to label things black or white? Good or bad? Rich or poor, young or old, Fat or thin, …where did this obsessive need to label, and judge come from?
From labeling, and judgments, come perception of differences. If you are not like me, maybe that is bad, and I don’t want to like you. Different should be good, yet is perceived as negative.
People don’t fit into simple categories. Wonderful people do bad things, and bad people have positive traits. Combine that into neighborhoods, towns, and societies, and you have the complex mashup that is our globe. Different, messy, wonderful, and terrible, all at once.
I think our ‘always on’, 24/7 world, where one can grab their phone at 3am on a sleepless night, check Facebook or Twitter, and see what the world is up to- has broken something in many of us.
When I was younger, the TV stations signed off after the news. If you were lucky, you could pick up a strong signal from a NY city radio station and listen to some radio. If you weren’t so lucky, you picked up a book, and nodded off.
We unplugged. We gave ourselves a chance to recharge, to unwind. Many of our youth today don’t have this opportunity. They don’t even understand the need…there is no unplugging. Has this pushed us over some societal precipice?
I for one don’t think so. We are not at the brink. As ugly as each passing newsday seems to be, as more terrible than the last, I still believe there is goodness in the world. More good than bad in fact. Far more. There is hope. I see it in my teenage children, and their hopes and dreams. Their desire to change the world and make it a better place than the one they see today.
I see it in the wealthy choosing to make pledges to give away their wealth after they die…and I see it in the poor making the time to help those around them in ways too varied to list here.
I see it in me, looking through the news stories, and still choosing to believe in the goodness of humanity.
So be like me just this once. Stay hopeful…find the rose, not the thorns…Find the sunshine, not the storms. Our feelings count, and impact others…and no feeling is more contagious, than hope.
We are not binary. We are not good, and we are not bad. I am an honest person, yet I have lied. I am a good person, yet I have done things I should not have.
I am hopeful. And I know that is a good start.