2012

04/01/2012

Aaron L. Pope

So long 2011! I bid you farewell, but please don’t call.

This year has been an eye opening experience for me, to say the least. The world is going through some interesting times, very interesting times. Arab spring, occupy Wall Street, and a whole slew of interesting decisions by the power elite.

Perpetual motion is supposedly an impossibility, but to the casual observer it would seem as if the needs and wants of the people have completely diverged from the needs and wants of the people in power and the speed at which the two are moving away from one another is just getting faster and faster by the day. Bankers, politicians and power brokers continually work to strip away every dollar and every last bit of freedom they can from the average citizen while at the same time the people are coming together all over the world to muster up the courage to tell these power elites- No!

No, we don’t want or like any of the rules you have been putting down. No, we don’t want big business bailed out. No, we don’t want to be put in a cage for voicing our opinions, just because you may not like what we have to say.

The fact of the matter is, never in my life has the constant smell of revolution been so prominent in everyday living. I mean never.

But, like so many things in life, if I let myself get so wrapped up in the big picture, the riots, the police brutality, net neutrality, I can feel myself getting worked up into a frenzy – into a state of anger that must be sated with the blood of the evil men and women bent on destroying everything you and I hold so dear. In the end, I cannot do anything about it, and it is the smaller stuff that ends up suffering.

So what now?

In 2012 I must take heed of the important personal matters in my life. A cop killed a kid in Oakland; I can’t do a dam thing about it. But I can make sure I get an A+ on my final exam so I can become a respected journalist and one day be in a position to point the cameras at the injustices of the world. A suicide bomber takes out 20 people in a market in Palestine. Well...I guess I can make sure I call my mother more often. A child molester is released from prison after serving two years of a seven years sentence. I can be more observant of my neighbourhood and maybe even get to know one or two of my neighbours at the same time.

Big change is hard; sure, the problems of the world can seem insurmountable. Hell, even small change is difficult, but a while ago some environmentalists decided that rather than sitting around hoping the world would wake up to their cause, they would be mindful of the environmental impact of their own lives instead.

I’m not saying you should recycle, or plant a tree, even though both of those things are a good idea. What I am saying is that the people around us matter. Smile as though you mean it when you see someone on the bus. Tip your waitress well, if for no other reason than she has been working her butt off all day to make sure her customers are happy, and all for less than the minimum wage.

Be mindful of your neighbours, and be generous with your smiles. Be nice to people, all people. Because when you need them, they might just be there for you in the end. This worlds only chance of survival is love, because without love, what the hell are we all doing here.