Wednesday, May 2, 2018

A Different Movie

I read about Brennan Walker, a 14-year-old African-American boy who missed the bus to school and decided to ring a neighbor's doorbell to ask for directions so he could walk there.

This request apparently almost cost this child his life.

I'm sure I don't have to provide any more details. 

He rang the doorbell.

The ringing of a doorbell has become a terrifying act.

And, very likely, this was a racial incident because the person who did the ringing was black, and the person who ended up shooting at the doorbell ringer, was white.

Thankfully, the shooter missed and the boy was (physically) unharmed.

But this goes beyond race to blind fear. We can get angry about people with guns and racism, and there's obviously a place for that, but let's look deeper at the fear that makes people decide they need guns.

Because we're living in what's probably the safest time on earth, ever. Likely much safer than the 70s.

What was different about the 70s from now is we didn't have the social media we have now. We didn't have access to never-ending news cycles that remind us about every bad thing ever.

There's no balance.

The comedian Sebastian Maniscalco does a hilarious routine about the doorbell ringing now versus the doorbell ringing in the 70s.

He says when he was a kid in the 70s, when the doorbell rang everyone got excited. It meant company. A treasured guest. Fun times would soon be had by all complete with the Entenmann's cake reserved for just such occassions.

Now, when the doorbell rings, his wife falls to the ground and shimmies across the floor to a window to see who it could be without being seen through a window.

He and his wife are horrified. Who could have the nerve to ring the bell?

Why are we scared of each other all the time? It's the movie that's playing in our universal head, fed by the constant "news".

We can change this.

Louise Hay offers an affirmation, which I feel, as universal energy, we all need to repeat: People are good. People are helpful. 

Let's all agree to stop seeing each other as a threat and start taking care of each other. 

All of life is the movie running in our head. We can play whatever movie we want.


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