BOOKMARKS

As I've often said, I believe that words are powerful. Some of the most memorable points in history have often been accentuated by the words that accompanied them.

From Jesus’ "Sermon on the Mount" to Martin Luther King’s "I Have A Dream", we have often marked history by remembering what was spoken or written in those pivotal moments.

I want to be among those - historical bookmarkers - individuals whose words outlive them, but whose memory is forever attached to change.

#change #words #power #history #memory #mlk

BOOKMARKS

HERE WE ARE. AGAIN.

Having conversations about things that should be understood, but are instead distorted. Conversations about perspectives and truth and evidence and emotions and me, me, me. Talking AT each other through the filter of our fears and frustration, without ever finding a place to rest our thoughts or console our broken hearts.

Here we are again.

Sifting through the garbage of questionable journalism that’s seems to be focused more on sensationalism than sincerity. There is no such thing as news when what you’re being fed is a steady diet of tragedy, misinformation, and outrage. I’m watching the world fragment around me as people try to take sides on a circle. There are no sides. There is only the continuity of life. We've entered a vehicle already in motion. We get one chance to do something with the tools We’ve been given. We either build, or we tear down.

Why are so many willfully choosing the path of destruction?

Here we are again.

Another black man gets shot. Another white man shoots. Another diversion from our worries and wounds.

“I need to see the whole video!”

“He was a father, but... he was also a threat, right?!”

“I could tell by the way he walked… disrespectfully!”

“But I could be wrong… take him to the hospital.”

“He was a juvenile, but... he was also carrying a loaded weapon!”

“I couldn’t tell he was dangerous until he used that gun to murder two people!”

“But I could be wrong… so let him go home and sleep it off.”

Here we go again.

We spend time we don’t have trying to pick apart motives, associations, and history, swirled around in a stew of politics and prejudice. We feed this garbage dispenser with our constant attention. Looking at the abundance of web editorials, desperate for your clicks and your money. I mean, I know that journalists need to get paid, but when did the value of reporting become a measure of how many people you can provoke?

Here we are again.

Apparently triggers make the world go ‘round. Let’s make people angry. Let’s make people cry. Let’s make people afraid. Let’s make people… indifferent.

The world should come with a content warning from the Surgeon General: CAUTION, LIVING MAY BE HAZARDOUS TO YOUR MENTAL HEALTH. But we continue to patronize the offenders. These social peddlers of the world's worst characteristics. We buy into the notion that seeing someone else in misery will make us feel better about our own circumstances. But it’s a lie.

You don’t earn any points for degrading other people. You don’t win a prize for being the loudest, most belligerent person in the room. You don’t change the world by pouring salt into its wounds. But...

Here we go again.

I’m just finding it hard to figure out the point in engaging with almost anyone these days. I'm feel like I'm so done with people and the stubbornness. But what benefit will I find in a life focused on despair? None. I just wish people would stop for a moment and see themselves. Maybe see the patterns of piousness. Because the real tragedy of hypocrisy is not in the act itself, but in refusing to acknowledge our hypocrisy when someone calls us out on it.

No one’s asking you to be perfect, just human. A human who sees other humans, and their inherent value as another human being. A life. Regardless of how they look or where they came from. Because if we don’t…

Here we’ll be again.

THE SUGAR COAT

I’ll be the first to admit when I don’t understand something. I think everyone suffers when you pretend to understand something you don’t. Usually, I’ll go to the source to try and find out whatever bit of information I’m missing so that I’ll have everything I need on which to base my opinion. If I’m unable to go to the source or the source proves unreliable, I just leave well enough alone. It’s not that I can’t have an opinion, I just don’t think my opinion is any more credible than those who formulate ideas about what an actor is really like, based solely on the roles they play.

Seems silly.

That being said, I’m trying to understand something… how is it that people somehow find a way to make everyone a hero? We make horrible decisions and must deal with the consequences. Nevertheless we will still find a crowd of people rushing to console and defend someone under the guise of being a “real friend”.

I don’t need friends like that. I need someone who will tell me point blank, “Riis, that was wrong.” or “Riis, you need to apologize.” or even “Riis, you messed up bad. Either you make this right or you suffer the fallout alone because I can’t support this kind of behavior.”

See… give it to me straight. Don’t sugarcoat my feelings or pity my shortcomings with silence. I will never grow that way.

Let me say that again…

Don’t sugarcoat my feelings, or pity my shortcomings with silence. I will NEVER grow that way.

Growth is invaluable.

Growth is sometimes painful.

Growth is necessary.

I can’t live without growth.

But I can live without the sugar coat.