Today is June 15, 2016 today America mourns for those hurt and killed in the terrorist attack in Florida. I was shocked when I read about the news on my phone. I immediately became saddened for those affected by it. I can’t imagine what the friends and family of those affected must be going through. What a mothers emotions must be or how their community is changed. Wretched events such as this changes perspective about what’s important.
I have a hard time hearing about events such as this. I’m sensitive and I ache when I see others in pain. I like to focus on things that are enjoyable to hear about. What’s small compared to everything going on in the world. I can focus on the nutritional value of not eating meat and I can waste hours on Pinterest looking at shoes.
Two weeks ago America upset about a gorilla. The staunch pro-life community was mad about the number of abortions that had been done sense the gorilla issue, and nobody “seemed to care.” The animal rights community (more of my community) was ferous about the death of the gorilla.
A month ago we were upset over Targets new public restroom police. Many conservative Christians have signed a petition to boycott the store. While some continue to shop there.
A about a year ago we were mad about #stopyulin2015. We added more hash tags onto twitter in hopes of stopping the Yulin festival. We petitioned and cried over animals being harmed.
Around the same time gay marriage become legal in all 50 states. I strongly remember scrolling through Facebook and seeing dozens of new posts about this. On person would be celebrating and another person was warning all of social media that God was going to destroy America because of this new law.
In the beginning of 2015 we argued if a dress was blue or gold.
Society is focused on rants and trends. Whatever is new and is easy to talk about becomes the new entertainment for awhile. For some reason we tend to believe that a Facebook status or a hash tag is going to change the world, or at least the make a difference. Theoretically it could but the chances of that happening is extremely low.
Most of my examples listened above are trivial. We are so consumed by issues that are seemingly pointless. What if instead of posting a picture on Tumbler we send hand written letters to those in pain?
My challenge for you is to focus on what matters. Educate yourself about what’s going on in the world. Beware of the heartache not just the trivial news even though it can be hard to hear about. How much heartache is going to happen before we start focusing on the news that has changed lifes in negative ways?
If we spent half of the time cognitively trying making a difference as we spend going on rants on social media about trivial problems, where do you think the world could be?
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