I have been writing newspaper columns since the 1980s and I always try to alternate a serious one with a lighter one.
But over the past two years, with the chaos created by the current political situation, it has become harder and harder to find the “lighter” side.
I was thinking of this while driving. I approached an intersection to make a slow right turn just about the same time as a pedestrian was stepping into the walkway. He looked at me and then hurried up his step. I realized that I had experienced that same situation before. The person in the walkway almost always hurries. They hurry because they want to be courteous to the driver, trying to be nice. Trying to do the right thing seems to be a natural instinct for most of us. I started to think of other similar situations.
Often it has happened that I will be in the grocery store just to pick up one item and as I approach the checkout line a person with a full basket will offer me the opportunity to step in front of them; a nice gesture toward a total stranger.
There are so many good people doing good things that we too often take them for granted. I am thinking about all the people who volunteer at the food bank, or the community center, the library, the art center, the museum or any of the animal shelters. I think of all the people who work the blood or clothes drives. These are all people with good hearts, doing for others without any expectation of return.
I want to believe people are basically good, that it is often the circumstances that lead to bad behavior.
When people are pushed into a crisis situation I see the good come to the surface. Think of all the times we have seen on the television good Samaritans rushing to the aid of a stranger. Just the other day the news showed a car caught in the flash flooding back East. The car was turned over in rushing water. People started jumping into the water to try and help the driver. The people helping were of mixed races, some appeared to be more affluent than others and no one seemed to care if the person in the car was black, white, a Muslim or Jew, they just rushed to help. Seeing such courageous acts helps support my belief that people are basically good.
We face exceptionally challenging times. To me, it seems like things are worse than they ever have been. At least, openly worse; I believe racist, sexist, homophobes have always existed and to great levels but now it seems OK to publicly espouse these notions. Now it seems OK to be a hater. This all saddens me and at times gets me depressed.
But, we must refuse to accept the evil that appears to be permeating the country. We must not become cynical or disgusted or depressed.
I feel an obligation to myself and others to seek out the good, to notice little acts of kindness that in the past I may have ignored or not acknowledged.
Under any circumstance but especially during this divisive time we need to acknowledge in each other the good we bring to one another. We need to try harder than ever to be good, to see the positive and to hope that the future will be better. We simply have to.
An old Mexican lady once told me, “Doing evil is easy. Doing good is what is really hard.”
Let’s keep working hard.
Gabriel A. Fraire has been a writer more than 45 years. He can be reached at gabrielfraire.com.
