Is it just us, or does it feel to anyone else like the world is raging?
Everywhere you turn, it seems anger is on the rise. Anger and judgment and blame and a refusal – or inability – to even attempt to walk that proverbial mile in another person’s shoes.
It’s as though we’re all collectively so overwhelmed by the problems facing our planet, our country, our city, our families, that we simply can’t find it in our hearts to respond with compassion and empathy.
Yes, some of this rage is warranted – and, in many cases, long overdue. Much of the rage we are seeing is fury that has at last been unleashed after far too many decades of silence.
Yes, we should be raging about racism, about the treatment of Indigenous Canadians, about sexual harassment and exploitation and misogyny in all its forms. We should be raging about violence against women, about mass shootings of innocent children, about poverty and homelessness, about homophobia and transphobia.
But raging against the power structures that have oppressed far too many for far too long is a different sort of rage than the everyday anger that makes life unpleasant – if not downright unsafe – for everyone.
We’re talking about the road rage of drivers who simply can’t wait their turn in a traffic jam or who can’t resist jamming on the brakes to try to send a message to the tailgater behind them.
We’re talking about the rage of the social media commenter who cannot pause for a moment to concede that maybe the other guy in the argument might actually have a point.
We’re talking about the harsh judgment of the onlooker who sees a small child’s tantrum and chooses to film it and share it on social media with judgmental commentary about how parents these days are falling down on the job.
And so on, and so on, and so on.
Have we really so badly lost our way? Have the world’s burdens simply become so heavy that we as a society can no longer find the good in the world around us?
Please, Burnaby, prove us wrong. When you go out into the world today, try to respond to life’s everyday problems with kindness.
Save your rage for the big stuff – and, better yet, channel that rage into action for change.
We know there’s hope for the planet. We just need to find it again.
