Hope For Peace

On Sunday morning, I rode past this barn but couldn’t resist making a u-turn and stopping. These three words summed up my feeling about so many things going on in the world.

It’s hard to move through modern life and not be bombarded by terrible news. It’s on the radio, when you open up the paper, all over social media, and worst of all – on everyone’s mind. If you take in any sort of social input, the news is there.

Of course that isn’t to say that the news isn’t worth knowing about. It is. But the gluttony with which it is consumed is out of control.

Admittedly, I am the type of person who becomes addicted to information, whether it is good for me or not. In times of pain or tragedy, I am absolutely that wackjob who cannot look away from the talking head on TV who is bringing me updates every hour and breaking news and exclusives from correspondents on the ground. I eat it up with a sick obsession and then let it unravel me.

Nothing good comes from being obsessed with bad news when it happens. For empathetic people, a pall of sadness is left on your day. For people who are predisposed to anger, their fires are stoked. For people who are sympathetic to the agendas of maniacs and evil motherfuckers, well… I don’t need to say it.

What happens next in the aftermath seems to only elicit further destruction. As political hot potatoes are bandied about, the separation of people and the seeming loss of their humanity takes center stage. Friends will vie for being “right” at the expense of everything else. And of course, he who shouts loudest and most often, wins – often by simply exhausting their debate partner. There is little true listening and little effort to understand and respect opposing viewpoints. Simply waiting for someone else to stop talking so that you can put forth your viewpoint doesn’t mean you’ve listened, cared, nor understood what the other person said. Minds are rarely changed, they’re just closed up tighter.

I don’t understand it. Any of it.

Hope for peace.
Give peace a chance.
Peace and love, peace and love.

Fuzzygalore

Rachael is the whimsical writer behind the 20+ year old Girlie Motorcycle Blog. As a freelance blogger, she is on a mission to inspire laughter, self-examination, curiosity, and human connection. Girlie Motorcycle Blog can be found on several Best Motorcycle Blog lists.

You may also like...

4 Responses

  1. bob says:

    Hope for Peace is a great concept, but I prefer “Work Towards Peace”. I just don’t have any brilliant ideas on how to make it happen. In my own life, I try to be less confrontational and try to give people the benefit of the doubt. Easier said than done. We live in strange times. Bob

    • Fuzzygalore says:

      Yes, i agree that we all have to work for it on a personal level. I guess I just hope others want to work for it as well. I hope for it for everyone.

      In the end, all this hate, all this hurt – it is worth nothing. It all just signals loss.

  2. Shybiker says:

    Yup. A diet of this plunges me into profound despair.

  3. David Masse says:

    Where to begin? America is in its own secluded niche in the stratosphere of the scatter chart when it comes to gun violence. There is always hope even in the most desperate times. But when the outlook is as bleak as it is currently, with the NRA advocating strongly for the continued proliferation of deadly AR15 assault rifles with high capacity magazines after the dreadful toll from Orlando, San Bernardino, Sandy Hook and all the other recent mass shootings involving that specific assault rifle, and no groundswell of utter revulsion by a majority of US citizens, hope seems dim indeed.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.