Thursday, December 11, 2014

ignorance vs. sanity

I've never been one to watch the news daily. I like to be an informed person, but watching all the bad stuff that happens in the world makes me sad, mad, helpless, and a million other bad feelings. Someone is murdered, someone is sick, someone stole something or blew something up. The bad things that happen consume the media far more than the good things, and whatever makes the better "story" is what gets the airtime. It's what gets spread like wildfire on the internet, with people from all over the world giving their opinions on facebook posts. Arguing with each other, determined that they are right and anyone who doesn't agree with them entirely is wrong.

More and more I wonder how things will change. It's easy to comment on how wrong something is, but a whole other ordeal to change something. And change is hard. Change requires more than arguing. I truly believe change requires people to see both sides of something. It requires understanding. And then it requires effort.

I want to be someone who can change the world. But anymore, I have the urge to bury my head under the sand and just ignore it all. I don't like to feel mad and sad and bad over things. All those feelings steal my energy and leave me worthless to the other things in life I should be doing.

Maybe that's why I'm a writer. I can create an army of characters to change my fictional world. As a writer, I have some control. And maybe my words can somehow change the actual world.

That's the hope, at least.

5 comments:

  1. I completely understand what you mean. Before i read your blog, I was reading an article about this restaurant owner in China who was buying dogs for meat. That particular dog they were highlighting in the article belonged to someone and was stolen right from her yard! I saw the graphic photo of what the restaurant owner was doing to "prepare" the meat and now I can't shake the image off. :( So sad. I know what you mean about wanting to make a difference - wanting to change the world. I feel like our stories definitely have the capacity to do that. :)

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    1. That's so sad! :( I couldn't handle someone taking my dog from me. I'd be so heartbroken. And I agree, that once we read or see something like that it sticks with us and leaves an icky feeling.

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  2. Just last night I brought my computer up and it goes straight to MSN(I've tried to change my homepage to Google and it's being stubborn). I saw this awful story on a 19 girl being attack and burned to death, and I was in tears by the time I finished reading it. It astonishes how people can be so evil! So, yes, I'm in the camp that tries to avoid the news.

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    1. My dad told me about that horrible crime. Even though I try to avoid the news, I still end up hearing about it :-/ But I'm astonished at how awful people can be, too.

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