Chill out!

By Nancy Black

No. This editorial is not about the weather. It is mighty darn hot here in Texas currently, but just give it a minute. Or a few days. OK, maybe a few weeks. The weather will change. Plus, I lived through the year 1980 in Dallas, when we had that record heat wave of 42 consecutive days of above 100-degree weather. Now that was hot!

When I wrote, “Chill out!”, what I meant is, “Relax, people. Take a chill pill!”

I had computer issues on Tuesday, one of my main production days, so I couldn’t work at my desktop for a while. Instead, I found myself conducting business via cell phone, which was fine until I fell down a rabbit hole of video clips via Facebook.

They started off simply enough; sweet helpless animals being rescued by kindhearted, generous people. Then, before I knew it, I was watching videos of tsunamis, car crashes and people acting at their absolute worst in public places.

Oh, the hate on the Internet. It’s so disheartening. There is so much vitriolic language and overblown reactions to the simplest of incidents these days. One video showed a woman calling the police because a man’s dog humped her dog at the dog park. Another caught a woman going berserk because she had to show her store receipt to an employee while leaving Walmart. All of them displayed human nature at its lowest. 

The hate currently vibrating through our society as a whole seems to be growing stronger every day. That is why I am asking everyone (anyone?) who happens to read these words to try and spread a little more kindness in the world, so we can do our part to counteract all the negativity. 

It doesn’t have to be a huge act of kindness, though it can be. Even the tiniest of actions can create a ripple effect of good.

Hate adds up. So does love. Pick up a piece of trash that isn’t yours. Allow that rude driver to merge before you. Smile when you catch eyes with some stranger on the street. Little bits of kindness can counteract a lot of hate.

Gosh knows, I am far from perfect, and some reading this might think, “Who the heck are you to tell me what to do?” Me? I am no one. I am just another human being living on this planet we call Earth. But I do know the difference between good and bad. We all do. That’s what a gut instinct is. And my gut instinct right now is to do whatever I can to bring more love and less hate into our world. Bit by bit.