Don’t Live In Time, Live In Moments (7/30)
Yesterday was tough. I can not say I liked yesterday — it was human rights day, and also there was a disruption in my favourite daily communication pattern. I even wrote yesterday’s post in a bit of an angry manner, but how can you not be when you see what is going on in the world?
Hello! Hi! How was your weekend? :) Fine, I hope. I really do hope you had a good weekend.
Mine ends up as a good one, because I choose to make it so. You see, when you pay attention to the world out there, you tend to get sucked in into the extensive craziness that humanity can manifest.
I manage the @humanrightsday Twitter account, and let me tell you that yesterday I cried. I cried because of so many people writing about the human rights violations that take place in different parts of the world — from Syria to US, from Sweden to South Africa. You name a place, something is wrong. That account got over 2500 followers yesterday, most of them with at least 1 interaction — so you know they have a pain. You get upset at the world, and go to sleep at 4am exhausted, thinking we are doomed as a race.
But then… you wake up, and you have notifications on your phone that make you smile. Because your world is actually quite amazing at the moment, and you have a lot of reasons to be happy, should you chose to just focus on that.
However, it is against my nature to not care about the rest of the world, and the article that Kathleen shared with me yesterday explains it a bit — even though I was never suicidal, I was depressed, and I always found that helping others makes me feel better about my life in general.
Today I needed a time out to sort out my inner conflict: I am happy in my own world, but I need to help the outside world as well, in order to keep being happy overall, but that outside world is such a bummer. Or is it, really?
I then decided to change perspective — all those thousands of people that tweeted yesterday — why did they? Is it really to make the world seem bad by pointing out all the evil our there, or can I chose to see them as people that actually fight against the bad in this world? So then, there is good out there. All those thousands of people, shouting about the injustice happening in the world ARE ACTUALLY GOOD!
So I started smiling again. There is hope. There is goodness and kindness, and we do care about each other!
“Be the change you want to see in the world” — M. Gandhi
But that’s a lot of pressure, Mr. Gandhi! I want the world to change and function guided by open source principles, respecting the fundamental human rights of all people, and built on common sense. How do I become that change?
I know, I know. Walking the walk, talking the talk. I contribute to human rights campaigns, I organise meetups and evangelise open source as much as I can, I always try to make decisions based on common sense more than emotion. But it’s difficult, and as Alex told me the other day, “most people still need to figure out their own dramas to care beyond themselves”. So I say forget about what Mr. Gandhi says, as “small acts of kindness are more powerful than big shows” (Alex again), and let’s reduce that quote to:
“Be the good you want to see in the world”
Be good! Be good to each other. Help one another. Do small acts of kindness, ask the ones you love how are they are REALLY doing today. Communicate honestly with people around you, ask uncomfortable questions that make people open up. Reach out, and be there for people. If necessary, forget about the big bad world out there for a while, and focus on making one person smile for a bit. It will make you feel better, I promise!
If you start feeling anxious this week, if you read those million articles about how fucked we are, if you catch yourself frowning and having trouble finding a reason to keep going, remember to take a break for 5 minutes: play your favourite happy song, and force yourself to smile for a bit— it will change your perspective.
It is good and wise to think about the future, but do not forget about making yourself happy in the present. As fucked up as life is, it is still beautiful and we all deserve to smile. We have to! At least for 5 minutes, now and then.
Have a wonderful week everyone! :) And catch me tomorrow..
This piece is part of the 30 Days Writing Challenge. During the next month I will write short stories about whatever is on my mind each day! Thank you for reading them, I hope they’ll inspire you! :)
