Sometimes I think that I focus on too many ‘small’ things and not enough ‘big’ things on my blog and on social media. I tend to do more writing about my own life and less on my opinions about what is going on outside of my very limited experience. But here’s the thing, I hope that people who follow me don’t think I simply don’t care or know about the larger world around me. When scrolling through my Twitter feed the other day, I couldn’t help but feel there was a lack of any ‘real’ news on it (except for from the news sources I follow), but there was an over-abundance of sponsored tweets, giveaways, fashion, thoughts on reality shows etc etc. Not that I find anything wrong with this at all, but it caused me to wonder whether no one I follows knows or cares about world issues, or whether they, like me, feel like they have nothing else to add to the conversation.
I’m going to hope and assume it’s the latter!
And of course, I felt a bit convicted, since I am guilty of posting about the trivial details of my own life instead of attempting to bring awareness to much-more-relevant world events.
So, I thought I’d share about what’s been on my heart lately.
Ferguson. I’ll admit, I didn’t follow much of the news on this until the past few days, but since then I’ve been glued to Twitter and CNN to see what’s going on in Ferguson. I think the entire situation is tragic, and although there aren’t too many ‘facts’ that have been released to the press/public, we do know that a young man is dead (probably because of excessive force by a police officer) and that some people are using the peaceful protests as an excuse to be not-so-peaceful and so the whole thing has become an even bigger deal. I hate seeing the looting. I hate seeing the (what I consider) excessive police force. I hate hearing that people fear law enforcement. I hate that it’s hard to even know who can be trusted. I hate that racism is still a thing in our world, and especially in America. But I do have hope when I watch this news unfold – I hope that changes will be made, awareness will be raised, and that Clara can grow up in a world free of racism and hatred and even fear of any kind.
Robin Williams. Selfishly, I’m sad that such a great actor and comedian will not entertain us in the future. My prayers are with Robin’s friends and family, especially his children. I cannot imagine what it must feel like to have a loved one take their own life. Depression is real and scary and I think it’s very misunderstood. I hate that anyone feels alone and desperate enough to end their life. I know that it’s so, so hard for a person who is suffering from depression to seek help and open up to others. I pray that my friends and family never feel depression, and that if they do, they can find appropriate help. I also pray that our country will begin to take mental health issues more seriously.
ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. What a great (and successful) fundraiser! I hope that people dumping ice water on their heads is bringing awareness to Lou Gehrig’s Disease, a disease that not many people may know about. I chose to donate to ALS instead of dousing myself with water (cold water is something I avoid at all costs!) and Tim donated and did the ice bucket challenge, to continue to raise awareness. What puzzles me is why people have strong opinions about this fundraiser. I understand that there are people out there who question whether people dumping ice water on their heads is more about them doing something trendy as opposed to them wanting to help out a charity by donating some money… but my opinion is, does it matter? Can’t we just be happy that donating to a charity is trending right now? Would the world be a better place if everyone saw this challenge as dumb and it never got off the ground and didn’t raise millions of dollars for a charity? I certainly don’t think so. The way I generally decide if things are wrong or right, bad or good, etc is by asking myself if everyone I know acted a certain way, would the world be a better or worse place. In this case, I strongly believe that if everyone I know dumped some ice water on their heads and donated to this charity (or any charity), the world would be a better place. If people rolled their eyes when they saw these videos and refused to donate or participate in something so ‘trendy’, the world would not be a better place. Do I believe people should donate to organizations regardless of whether it’s the ‘cool’ thing to do? Of course. Do people donate regularly? Not everyone and not as much as we all should. So let’s just be happy this is raising awareness to both this particular cause (ALS) and the importance of donating to not-for-profit organizations. Let’s not focus on whether people should be donating more money, donating to different organizations, the motives of those participating in the challenge, or any other distractions. This is a good thing, people, let’s not choose to focus on the negative, there’s enough of that out there in the world today. If you’re looking for something to get angry about, get angry about…
The situations in Iraq/Syria/Ukraine/Israel. I’m not as knowlegable as I should be about each of these situations, but I’m praying for peace in our world. There are too many people willing to kill each other because of religion, citizenship, culture… it’s tragic and scary. I think it’s easy to think that the conflicts in these areas have nothing to do with us, but of course, that’s not the truth. As citizens of the world, unrest somewhere effects us all and we should care deeply about it.
What’s been in your head and/or on your heart lately?
Cheers!
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