Image via Wikipedia
As I was searching for my daily positive quote to post on my Facebook page I ran across this one:
"Laugh and the world laughs with you,
weep and you weep alone."
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
I liked it, it struck me for some reason. My first reaction to it was, this is not true anymore, the world loves to weep with you. The world has moved on, and weeping is the new laughing. And I feel, in someway, that this is true. We seem to have become a society that thrives on the negative, that looks for opportunities to feel slighted or misused. We want to be able to feel like a victim, even when we are not.
What proof do I have of this, none really, just my observations. Watch TV in the late morning early afternoon and you will find TV courtrooms with people pleading there cases for all the world to see. Tune into the nightly news and watch as our neighbors and fellow citizens play the race card or demand equality were no equality is guaranteed.
The Casey Anthony trial is a perfect example of weeping over laughing. People lined up hours before the door opened to the court room, rushed in, pushed people out of the way, all to get a seat in the belly of one of our nations shameful moments. We clamored to out TVs to get updates and to see her reactions. When we as a nation should have been ashamed of what was done, we turned it into a media opportunity, a mini-series of reality. And when the not guilty verdict was announced, we yet again showed out national obsession with weeping. Hundreds of people made pilgrimages to the shallow grave site where she was found, setting up a makeshift memorial.
Why is that bad, in-of-it-self it is not, feeling emotion for the loss of life and feeling that justice was not served are both valid. But what is not valid is the obsession of the nation, the pushing and shoving of people, who did not even know her or anyone in the family. Had no ties to the case, yet they felt compelled to miss work, stand in line, shove and push to get a “good” seat, as if it was a rock concert of some sort. The fact that thousands left gifts at a makeshift memorial, spent hours in lines to do so, yet has never had any dealing with the family in the past.
The weeping to the point of obsession is the replacement to laughter. We as a nation have become obsessed with the need to feel slighted and put out. We look for and find, how ever obscure it may be, reasons to weep, reasons to feel oppressed and put upon. We avoid reasons to laugh and to make light of situations. In fact if we do make light of situations we are looked down upon, we are considered cold and uncaring. If we do not make opportunities to weep we are considered odd or aloof.
Find a reason to laugh today…
God Bless
Paul
An American Point of View 