So, you've probably seen all the hulabaloo in politics recently. (If you haven't, where have you been?) Both sides are screaming "I'm right! I'm right! You're wrongggg!".
Is this actually getting us anywhere?
I don't think so.
As children, we learn certain things. Our parents teach us to share with each other, to be courteous to one another, and to work together. We learn about compromise at a very early age. So why does it seem to disappear as we get older? Why do the simple lessons we learn cease to be important as time goes on?
If politicians (and people in general) can learn to work together, and compromise, we might actually get something done. As it is now, all people are doing is yelling at each other, and that's never solved anyone's problems, has it?
Another question I have for America is "when did helping people become a bad thing?" People refuse to help the poor with their medical bills, refuse to help them go to school, and then complain when they don't do anything with their lives. If you don't know how to work in a car factory, and don't have money to go to school, how are you supposed to work in a car factory?
You're not.
Simply shelling money out to people, won't help, but giving them the resources will. Sure, some people are just sitting on their bums, accepting relief checks, and not attempting to do anything with their lives, but I'm convinced that a vast majority of unemployed people want to make something of themselves. We just need to give them a chance.
"Give a man a fish, he'll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish, he'll eat for life."
If we don't help each other, we're going to collapse. Our society isn't going to survive if we only focus on helping our selves. Besides, there's this amazing feeling you get when you help someone, especially if you don't expect anything in return. That's one of the reasons I love mission work so much. The feeling I get from doing something, especially something with my hands, and being able to see the result, is one of the most amazing feelings ever.
In church today, the preacher mentioned smiling. Of course, I had to try and keep myself from smiling. (It didn't work very well.) One of the things people comment on is my smile.
I'm slightly self concious about my teeth. For a long time, I had this HORRENDOUS overbite. (That's what happens when you suck your thumb until you're in fifth grade.) Then, in middle school, I got braces. (Maybe about seventh grade? I'm not entirely sure.) In my freshman year, I got them off. Since brushing was kind of difficult with braces, there were a few trouble spots, and I got my first cavity. (I was FREAKED. OUT.) Now that I've gotten the cavities taken care of, I want to whiten my teeth. Other people may not notice the spots, but I do. I notice every scar, every spot, every imperfection. In my mind, I know it's not that big of a deal, but it still bugs me from time to time.
However, despite all of the flaws, people still compliment me on my smile. Today, my dad explained that the reason people like my smile is because I mean it. He said some of the most beautiful smiles he's seen were from people with no teeth.
People say I smile a lot. Its true.
There was a book I read, called Sideways Stories from Wayside School, by Louis Sachar. It's a cute little book with short little chapters full of absolute silliness. One of the chapters stuck with me, however. It's only three pages long, and it's about a boy who smiles a lot. His classmates ask him why he is smiling, but he just shrugs. Finally, when the yard teacher asks him why he's smiling, the boy replies "You need a reason to be sad. You don't need a reason to be happy."
When I first read that sentence, the truth of it didn't really hit me. It wasn't until much later that I realized how true it was, and how much it applied to my life.
The reason I smile is because it feels good. Life is to short to be unhappy all the time. I know that I always feel better when someone smiles at me, so why not smile at everyone else? I enjoy smiling. There are so many reasons to smile, so many opportunities to share your joy with the world.
I enjoy finding the beauty in life, in the world around me, and in the people who surround me. If you're not going to enjoy life, what will you enjoy?
On the last day of summer this year, I went to the park with one of my friends. Both of us took our dolls with us. We played on the playground, and played with our dolls. Granted, we didn't dress them up in every available outfit and make them walk around a plastic house, but posing them and taking pictures of them counts as playing. We realized that that day was the last summer as "children." Next summer, both of us will be eighteen, we'll have graduated from high school, and we'll be on our way to college. So we took the opportunity to behave like children. This doesn't mean that we won't have our childish days, and we'll stop watching the kiddie shows and getting happy meals, but it does mean that we'll start to have more responsibilities, and we won't have as much time to at like children. We'll be voting, we'll be going to college, we'll be starting the next stage of our lives next summer. So we took the opportunity to enjoy the last day of our school-age summers.
Sometimes life starts to feels like it's coming at me too fast. It feels like the whole world wants me to grow up, when I'm not ready. Sometimes, when I start to see all of the hate in the world, and all of the things that are wrong, the emotion will start to build up, and I'll get so angry that I want to cry. That's when I pick up a book, or turn my Ipod on and dance around my room. That's when I pop a Disney movie into the VCR and curl up on the couch, and begin to feel like a little kid.
Children aren't born hating people. Children are taught to hate people. Children are born with no judgments, no prejudices, no sense of evil. They don't hate the people they see. While their parents may look at a person, and see all of their faults, all of their shortcomings, children can look at the same person and just see another human being.. They don't see the serial killer, they don't see the terrorist, they just see another person. It isn't until they're taught that they ought to hate someone, that they actually hate them.
Kids? They've got the right idea.
There really isn't enough love in the world. There aren't enough smiles. There aren't enough children. There isn't enough innocence in the world.
We should change that.
"My advice to you is not to inquire why or whither, but just enjoy your ice cream while it's on your plate." ~Thornton Wilder
