Being sort of out of the loop for two weeks while in Italy I am now slowly reconnecting with all the news out there. Frankly it is pretty damn scary. With ISIS and their reign of terror sweeping the lands we unwisely chose to vacate and the ebola virus sweeping West Africa and now popping up in Dallas, Spain and who knows where next? It reminds one of how fragile we all are and how truly dependent we are on one another. Hence my message today is simply make a point to just do something nice for someone each day. Go out of your way to do something or create something that spreads joy, happiness and beauty. Small positive steps by a large herd makes a stampede. Just as small steps by the dark side does the same. If all of us just do a few things each day what a difference we would all see.
I don't get the hatred I'm seeing out there. Life is short - really short, and with all that is happening none of us really have a grasp of how fast it can all change. All of us in Arizona are so blessed to live in such a beautiful place, and really anyone who lives in the United States is truly blessed. Unfortunately, there are always and have always been war, disease, famine, droughts, etc. that mankind has had to deal with since the dawn of time. Despite our trust in technology which on the one hand gives us enormous means to deal with these issues, it also speeds them along with our ability to travel across the globe in a day or communicate or hack someone's account instantly. It's a double edged sword. Basically it all comes down to how we use the tools. The spear of the cave man is no different than the smart phone of today. They can be tools to feed and defend, communicate and learn, or kill and destroy, hack or cyberbully. It is all in the hands of each and every person.
I think what has now changed in the world is the true power our individual acts and morals play in the world in spite of how big a government's armies and air forces might be. As we are seeing with ISIS, dropping a few sporadic bombs here and there won't get the job done. These people are who they are and believe in evil and incivility and the more bombs we drop on them the more convinced they will become of their perspective. To think some of these ISIS troops are from teens in this country is sad. It means somewhere and somehow they lost hope here. Or opportunities did not exist for them here and they went to the dark side.
The solutions to all of these problems is not some grand epiphany that will miraculously appear and solve all of our problems. The solutions will take years if not generations. But as with all stampedes, as I said earlier, it takes just small steps in a unified and positive direction by millions of us to ultimately sweep a vast territory. Optimism versus terrorism. Love versus hate. Sharing and giving versus taking. Teaching and mentoring versus criticizing and condemning.
We all need to do more - it seems impossible but as a community and culture we can make a difference and it starts at home and with the people we all come in contact with each day. Driving to work, at the grocery store, in line at DMV - let's all try to shed light, hope, beauty and most importantly tolerance and lot more love……the world is tough enough.