Love is in Stiles

Mean people. Can I just tell you it is one of my pet peeves? Respect your elders, respect those that are different from you, and "don't look down on anyone unless you are helping them up". Oftentimes I wonder what the world is coming to. You know what I mean, you watch shows on TV where the high school girls are calling everyone "losers" and filling their shoes with cow dung, or whatever, and think to yourself "High school wasn't that bad. This is so unrealistic." And I agree. But you can't deny that the world is going through a serious epidemic of Mean.

I might be overly sensitive. For example, I don't enjoy The Office, mostly because of the character Michael Scott. He was so mean to most of the co-workers, so selfish, so judgmental, it literally gave me stomach aches. There have been a few episodes where I had to leave the room while Scott watched them because they made me so sad. The episode titled "Scott's Tots" for example. When a group of children from an underprivileged area are promised in Kindergarten that if they make it to college Michael Scott will pay for them to go. Then, of course, he forgets and gives one kid a few hundred dollars for books. Who are the despicable writers that think of these things?!?

In fact, I am perfectly comfortable watching serial killer shows like Criminal Minds. But have you ever seen Criminal Minds? The team is NICE to each other. A show about good people that are pleasant to each other suits me. Even when what brings the team together is catching serial killers by profiling them. Or how about the shows Parks and Recreation? In a small town's Parks and Recreation office a group works together and they become nice like friends. While they often make fun of Jerry (the overweight, boring, but sweet older man), the group is family to one another and they all have good souls. Some deeper down than others (Tom Haverfield).

There are examples of utter cruelty everywhere. This video, which I came across today on CNN, is a fake Hyundai ad making a joke out of someone who fails to commit suicide off of car fumes because their car only emits water vapor. Hyundai completely denies making the video, saying it was done by some pranksters, and was never posted by Hyundai online. It broke my heart a little to read the article, and I couldn't force myself to press play on the video.

The news. School. Music. Church. Social Media. Movies. Advertisements. I am convinced that the world is sick with this Mean-disease. Lately I have been so troubled by this that I started collecting happy, positive stories and thoughts, to remind myself there is good in the world. And to learn from others on how to share that kindness and caring.

Here are a few of my recent Happy Thoughts:

1. Teaching our Children-
Here is a clipping from my sister in law's blog about my sweet niece Tien:
A note on T...I just have to brag a bit more...hey it is my blog I can brag all I want. Tien is a very sweet sensitive girl. I had such a shining moment of pride the other day, she had a bunch of friends over and they were all watching Megamind and a part came on where there is a girl who is cross eyed and has a broken leg and one of her little friends laughed and said "She looks funny!" Tien turned to her and in a very serious voice said "It isn't funny...she has a broken leg, it is sad!" She is so sensitive to the feelings of others. She is so kind to everyone especially kids with disabilities or who are hurt. We always try to take opportunities to talk about how to be kind to everyone and point out in anything we read or watch when people are not being kind and when the are. She is very aware and it brings joy to my heart. If my kids are nothing else I hope they will both be kind. And so far that is the case.

2. Expressing Love to Our Family
This is a blog post about a woman who writes notes on what she loves about her children every day of February, for Valentines. I know this is about children again, but we are truly raising the future. If you teach your children to be kind, you will become kinder yourselves as well. How important and memorable is it for a child when you constantly praise them for any charitable act you see them preforming, or kind word they say? Especially when they think you are not watching. In everyone, especially our little ones, attention reinforces action.

3. Positive Media
21 Pictures to Restore Your Faith in Humanity is an article of pictures of some of the sweetest acts caught on camera this past year.

4. Random Acts
Do you ever hold the door open for someone and say to yourself, "Well that's my one nice thing for the day"? I know I do. However, I often wish that I was more intentional in my small acts of kindness in a day, and that they weren't just a convenient opportunity to not be totally selfish. There is a non-profit organization called Random Acts, that promotes doing one random act of kindness everyday. I had heard of this idea, but hadn't heard of this organization (Random Acts) until a family friend had her two young sons, 4 & 6, nominated for the SARAA award. This stands for ' Semi-Annual Awards for Random Acts'. For the past seven months the boys have been doing one random act of kindness a day. I teared up (what's new, right?) when I read about them having a 'service' birthday party at the local Children's Medical Center. These two sweeties were obviously taught well, and you can see why here, at the blog their mother started to document ways to teach your children to love service.

These are my top four for now. I hope that my post wasn't too much of a bummer, and that the kindness in my top four Happy Thoughts outweighed my examples of the Epidemic of Mean. Feel free to post what your Happy Thoughts are, tell me your thoughts on the Epidemic, and always remember: