Decadent Divas: What have we become?

Thursday, August 4, 2016

What have we become?

When I was a child, it was a big deal when flags were lowered to half-mast. It meant something in the world had gone terribly wrong and as a nation we collectively showed our support and mourned.

The reason why flags are lowered to half-mast has not changed, but it’s different now.

The other week while I was at the day job, a gentleman was in our office and gestured to the flag poles outside and the flags hanging halfway up and asked, “What is it this week?”

What is it this week.

Yeah. It took a moment for that to sink in for me, too. What is it this week?

The world has always been a big, bad, scary place, but with social media and the internet, the horrors of humanity are reported as they’re happening. Right in your face. And it never ends. In a nanosecond “information” zooms across the stratosphere, and just as quickly a person can respond or take action, whether action is warranted or not. We live in a knee-jerk society where it seems as if no one takes a moment to think.

My young nephew has taken to calling the news “the death report,” because that is what it has become. The first thing they do is rattle off the list of those who have died that day. This is not the world I thought I would live in. This is not the world I want to live in. We are now to the point where we as people are in a constant state of mourning and fear.

So on this random Thursday, I am making a wish for mankind.

Find joy.

Find something that makes you smile. Makes you giggle. Makes you happy. It doesn’t have to be big, in fact tiny is probably better. Easily managed increments that can expand and grow. And maybe, just maybe, the flags will go back to flying from the top of the pole where they belong and stay there.

Peace and joy to you all.

Anna