NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- The spirit of the holidays brings people together, makes everyone a little more charitable and makes life more than bearable.
By mid-January, the holidays are winding down and the Christmas trees are finding their way to the curb. It’s so sad to think about the joy leaving with the decorations and it adds so many bittersweet feelings to, “until next year”. So why not all year ‘round?
Why don’t we embark on crusades of kindness in mid-August, or on a random Tuesday, or in the supermarket? What if we lived in a world where people were just -- nice? I don’t see why we couldn’t.
I feel as though we’re in a state of dependency instead of relativity and it’s tearing us apart. We pass the time with talk, but talk of what? We talk to talk, to complain, to gossip, to dwell, but how often do we talk in wonder, gratitude or even with genuinely kind intentions? Not enough.
Why don’t we make 2013 not about us as individuals, but about us as a family of strangers all trying to get through the day and make this place a home? Why don’t we bring back the lost art of letter writing, taking walks with friends, and making dinner for neighbors? They’re nice thoughts, repeated and recycled from years ago when we started fresh with a different number and hope for a different future.
We just move too fast. We move too fast to hold the door open for more than ourselves, to write a letter to a grandparent, to have a conversation, in person. But our world supplies what we demand so why don’t we demand anything different? Demand more time for sleep, family and time to think; time to breathe.
If we stopped surviving for money, fame and reputations, maybe we could start living. Maybe, we’d have more friends. Maybe people wouldn’t be alone surviving only on the heat from the day and the loose change of strangers. Maybe every dog would have a home and every home a dog. I understand why anyone would be apprehensive; I’m not a delusional teenager that thinks I could change the world with just my words. I’m just a teenager who wishes people were nicer.
If we stopped surviving for money, fame and reputations, maybe we could start living. Maybe, we’d have more friends. Maybe people wouldn’t be alone surviving only on the heat from the day and the loose change of strangers. Maybe every dog would have a home and every home a dog. I understand why anyone would be apprehensive; I’m not a delusional teenager that thinks I could change the world with just my words. I’m just a teenager who wishes people were nicer.
No fancy words, no clever metaphors or quotes, just kindness and the blind hope that someday kindness will be more than a philosophy we only talk about needing when a young boy loses his hope to live because of bullies or a mall is randomly shot at by an angered victim of abuse. Maybe kindness will be living.
I think we can start with a smile. “A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they will never sit in.”
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