It happens every time there’s a great tragedy in the
world. Now, with Facebook, Instagram,
Twitter and all the other seemingly thousands of social networking platforms (I
can’t keep up) we quite literally SEE it.
What I’m speaking of is the outpouring of love and support.
After the attack on Paris, my Facebook feed was literally
filled with expressions of love and support, but then the inevitable
happened. I knew it was coming and
braced myself for it… and it took a very short time for it to appear: The backlash.
Messages of seething anger TOWARDS the people expressing
love and support began to appear on my feed, mixed in with the love and
support. Anger that their love and support
wasn’t there for Beirut, when there was an attack the day before,
or for the attack at the University in Kenya back in April. While that anger is understandable, the manner in which it’s expressed, especially to people expressing love and support isn’t positive or effective.
I liken it to a child bringing breakfast in bed to their
parent. Sure the omelet is a slimy mess,
the toast is slightly overdone and the coffee is weak, but what would it
accomplish for the parent to tell the child, “This is the worst breakfast I’ve
ever seen. You can’t do anything
right. You’re a terrible person!”
How likely is it that that child will ever make breakfast in
bed for their parent again? Or for that
matter, ever do a nice thing for another person again? A much more positive and effective way to
approach this situation is to show immense gratitude for the gesture, then in
kindness and without shaming the child, gently teach them how to make a proper
breakfast, making it very clear that the intention behind the gesture was
beautiful and appreciated.
As I said, it’s understandable that someone would be angry
that the attack on Beirut did not inspire the same love and support as the
attack on Paris, but the reality is, the world is not perfect. People are not perfect.
However, when we react to a person’s show of love and
support with shame and anger, we run a great risk of keeping that person from
ever wanting to show love and support again for anything.
A much more positive and effective way to approach this situation is to
show immense gratitude for the gesture of love and support, then in kindness
and without shaming the person, gently teach them that there are other
tragedies in the world, making it very clear that the intention behind their
gestures were beautiful and appreciated.
This can be taken even one step further. I know many people, while they change their
Facebook profile picture, post positive videos and pictures and express their
feelings of support, wish there was more they can do. Why not take this moment, not to ridicule or
shame them for ONLY doing this, but present to them possible ways in which they
can do more?
I saw the same reaction to the death of Cecil the Lion; the
shows of love and support, followed by an angry backlash.
But what I also saw were people sharing links
to animal conservation organizations, giving people the opportunity not just to
express their concern for animals, but also do something about it. And before you act with more ridicule and
anger that someone giving a small donation to an animal conservation is hardly
enough, come back to the idea of what you can do to positively affect
change? Are there volunteer opportunities you could
suggest with genuine kindness? Again,
telling people they must volunteer or hang their heads in shame will accomplish
nothing positive.
Perhaps you wish to take this opportunity of an influx of
caring concerned people to suggest other ways they could get involved in other
issues that exist in the world. Here’s
the thing: There are a million causes,
not everyone has to be involved in every cause.
Placing one cause as more important than another is subjective and
people are free… FREE… to choose which cause they wish to care about.
The important thing… and this is the main point of this
article… is to get people to do something to help make the world a better
place. If the only thing a person does
is change their Facebook profile picture to the French flag, that’s more than
they did the day before! That’s a person
expressing positivity, love and support and that can ONLY help the world.
This is how we change the world. The more positive energy we generate, the
more love and support is expressed in the world, the better the world will
become. We should celebrate this. We should do more of this. When terrorists strike and we react with love
and support, that is a win for us. When
we put our energy into educating, encouraging and applauding such acts of love
and support, then we are moving towards being a better world.
1 Million Meditating children for world peace in Thailand
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