New Humanity

I have to say, I am sickened by the turn we have taken as a species. Used to be, if a driver was distracted, daydreaming or lost in a personal problem and missed a traffic light change, the driver behind them would give a quick, polite toot to jar them back to reality. Now….the waiting driver, offended and angry lies on their horn like the distracted person is ruining their life!

It is not personal, they are not out to ruin your day. Chances are you are going to the market, or bank, or to pick up a kid. All tasks that will not be ruined if you are thirty seconds late. Angry bursts like this may be warranted if you have a woman in labor or a relative heading to the hospital with a life-threatening illness.  But the run of the mill, daily drive does not warrant the amount of anger and stress of aggressive driving and long horn bursts. What you are doing is no more important than the person in front of you.

I am SO tired of people jumping all over a single word or statement in the media, or T.V. ads. There are issues that need to be called out, exposed in the media, but we nit pick every word, every image to death! If words or an image blatantly promote hate based on race, ethnicity, sexuality, weight and other pressing issues, they need to be addressed. But if one word upsets you, it is too easy to find like-minded people on the internet to join your cause.

I ,myself defend everyone’s right to their beliefs. I advocate for the disabled, mentally ill and medical marijuana. I back gay rights to protect those in my family. I abhor child or animal abuse. With that said, I am tired of people picking one issue that bothers them, finding thousands of people online to back their beliefs. Recent example, Hallmarks’s Christmas sweater ornament. They pulled from the lyrics of “O come all ye faithful” and changed a word to represent the idea of the Christmas sweater. They printed “Don we now our fun apparel,” instead of “gay apparel.”

People wrote in outrage about the removal of the term gay. Now, every one alive knows that gay has multiple meanings. it can denote fun, elation or sexual preference. This was a lose, lose situation for Hallmark, if they had used Gay, people may write in protest, stating that they are promoting homosexuality, others would laud them and some would simply take it at face value, the words from an accepted Christmas song. Some may claim that linking the word gay with this over the top, garish Christmas sweater as stereotyping an entire group of people. Hallmark focused on the underlying feeling the sweater evokes.  Fun, parties, family gatherings, traditions, feeling good. I am not offended over the fact that they removed the word gay because I feel it slanders anyone, I am upset that they bastardized the words to a well-loved, traditional Christmas carol. I will however decide to buy, or not buy this ornament and not find a fan base to cause a media sensation. Our best weapon if we don’t like something, don’t buy it!

We as a society are too stressed, to intense, in too much of a hurry. We make our wants, needs, schedules and events first, and damn anyone who stands in our way. I was leaving a local store with my cart full of bags. In front of me was a woman wearing an oxygen hose, leaning on her cart as she headed to the exit. I took a breath and slowed, matching my pace to hers. A well dressed woman, in heels and dress suit, phone to  her ear got behind me. She cursed and mumbled, making statements out loud that surely reached the ears of the elderly woman.

She growled “Move you old bat! Come on, I don’t have all day!” I wanted to turn and smack her.

I don’t think we can survive as humans if we don’t reconnect, respect others, slow down, realize that we don’t have to multitask 24 hours a day. We need to be nice to each other, let go of anger.  We have lost the ability to see the whole picture. We focus on our own needs, wants and damn anyone who gets in the way. The person ahead of you at a stop light may have just lost a mother, a wallet or went without sleep due to a newborn baby. Cut them some slack. You could improve their day, and yours by taking the high road. You are not entitled to a stress free day, you create a stress free day with your attitude and how you react to the world around you. Curb the anger and remember that a simple inconvenience with not change the course of your life. Stop projecting your anger and stress on others and look in the mirror, figure out why you are so angry and stressed out.