There it is but what does it mean? What does it mean to you?
Just a few days ago, my dear friend Magreeshi (http://www.magareeshi.com/) had an idea
of sharing pictures drawn all over with washable sidewalk chalk. She used the phrase #WetChalkMovement. I thought it was brilliant and so did a lot
of others who started painting their driveways and any available spaces with
happy and beautiful pictures. All kinds
of photos and stories were sent in to show her that what she did had a positive
impact on people.
I had been pondering for a while what I might be able to do
to help bring peace to the world more than I have through my Mental Sauna and
other music. When Magreeshi sent this
post out, I came up with #HappyPeopleDoNotHurtEachOther. While that said what I wanted to say, it didn’t
work the way I wanted it to. No matter how you say it, the focus is on hurting
people. I sent it out to a couple
trusted people and got responses which eventually brought me to the title of
this Blog.
Why didn’t the original version work when it said the same
thing? I strongly believe that specific
language paints a picture so, to get the point across, you have to paint the picture
in words that you want people to see.
Had I sent the first one, people would think about happy people committing
acts of violence. That wasn’t what I
wanted at all. I often think of Mother
Theresa’s statement about refusing to support an anti-war rally but would
always support a peace rally. They both
have the same goal but the focus of the former is still on war. If you say anti-war, what do you
picture? Battle? Body parts?
Tanks? That’s exactly why it
doesn’t work. What do you picture when
you think peace rally?
When you think about it, how many happy people go around
hurting other people? Not too many,
right? What do happy people do? They want to stay in that feeling and make
others feel good, too. What do unhappy
people do? Speak louder and louder until
someone else is as miserable as they are.
It has gotten even worse not that social media has given everyone a
voice. They have not always chosen to
use it wisely. Many of the posts I used
to see are anger fueled, opinionated and some downright hateful. What does this help? Nothing.
These people are just speaking out and not doing anything to bring about
any change, which is what #HappyPeopleMakeASafeWorld is all about.
When you have dried, caked on dirt in a glass, you can’t
just pour it out and be done. You have
to run water through it to get the glass clean again, right? Your mind is no different. You have to filter out the bad things in your
mind by flushing them out with good things.
I see #HappyPeopleMakeASafeWorld as the clear, clean liquid that can
wash that dirt away.
I can’t do it alone. Please help me spread the word about
this. Let’s clean the dirt off the glass
so we can see the beauty of the world through it. Let go of the pointless hatred that isn’t
doing anything but separating us all.
Cut out the news that is depressing and doesn’t tell you anything you
need to know. Take everything you can
that makes you feel bad when you see it and get it out of your face. Surround yourself with things that make you
smile. Some things you can do easily,
others will take time. One thing I did
was change my home page to Google so I don’t see all the horrible things in the
world that are going on first thing in the morning when I get on the internet
to check my email since there is no news feed.
Some things are that simple.
Let’s all get together and make the world happy and safe. Share it everywhere you can. If you have ideas on how to expand on this, I
would love to hear them. Please leave a
comment below.
Thank you and make today beautiful - for you and everyone else!
Scott
