In the U.S., life seems to be all about living in anger, pain, fear, and rage. Life has become a zero sum game where for a person to win, or get ahead, someone else has to lose. If another person doesn’t share the same views, he or she is now the “other” in every negative way possible.
There is so much vitriol, divisiveness, fear mongering, denial, and hateful talk in the country that I worry we are losing sight of what it means to be human. When we live out of fear or hate, especially fear or hate of people we have never even met, then we are throwing away the gift of life that we were given. Fear, anger, hate, those all sound more like a curse than a gift. A life lived in opposition to others based on nothing more than the fact that they are others sounds like darkness and death.
We are in the time of year when some folks reach out and try to make amends to others or rekindle relationships. Sadly, we are also in the time of year when folks who have given up on the gift of life start thinking about how bad things are for them. I hope that we can all put away the hate and look for the magic that life has to offer. Maybe we can look out for those “others” that may be having a hard time of it right now. Life is not a zero sum game. None of us are going to make it out of here alive. What we do with our time here matters. So how about we try to figure out how to make life a win-win?