Can't We All Just Get Along?

Point to Ponder: And all I'm saying is, see, what a wonderful world it would be if only we'd give it a chance. - Louis Armstrong

Story Line: There is so much more to humankind than this and it makes me sad. -FB Post by Marilyn Joyce Mabry Carney, Publisher of The Country Connection News, Oklahoma. Printed with Permission. 

I said this earlier on a thread where a guy I never heard of judged me on a question I asked. I think I'll share it here because it hits all of us including me.

This is a world where everyone has to be lableled. You don't agree with one little tidbit of the "opposite" party or you are the enemy. We dismiss people we think are less educated, less sophisticated, older, younger,--any label we can put on them to make our opinion THE correct one. Back in the dark ages, we learned in college debate that if you couldn't understand and present both sides of an argument you would lose. Today we don't even read a post that might give us a glimpse of why people believe what they believe. At what point are we totally educated? I'm old and I say we never get there. I hope I don't. We are influenced by the words we choose to listen to. The desire for truth is absent these days. Labelling people as someone who listens to Fox News or CNN to put them in a category of same or opposite of us is a total waste of the chance to learn a diffrent perspective. We miss knowing so many great people we would be friends with because of our arrogant political prejudice. There is so much more to humankind than this and it makes me sad.

Reflection: Thad Gardner, a former colleague and a friend, forwarded the above FB post by his friend Marilyn. It is very thought provoking. It reminded me of the days when we used to dialogue with people about various different subjects, including politics, and still remain friends. Like an intense sports game: play hard, fight to the last drop of sweat but when the game is over - shake hands, give hugs, make some friends, learn and grow from the experience. (more stories about these things will be in future FRs).

For now, I would like to share The Original Spoken Into Version of It's a Wonderful World that is so appropriate for the times:

"Some of you young folks been saying to me," Hey Pops, what you mean 'What a wonderful world'?
How about all them wars all over the place? You call them wonderful?
And how about hunger and pollution? That ain't so wonderful either."

Well how about listening to old Pops for a minute. Seems to me, it aint the world that's so bad but what we're doin' to it.
And all I'm saying is, see, what a wonderful world it would be if only we'd give it a chance. Love baby, love. That's the secret, yeah. If lots more of us loved each other, we'd solve lots more problems. And then this world would be a gasser.

That's wha' ol' Pops keeps saying."   Listen to this wonderful song in the following link.

 

 

Comments

[Pragmatic]

Idealistic and desire stage but not realistic and practical - we the human have to be simply pragmatic!

[Pulao Penang Friend]

👍🏽life is full of discovery. Is wonderful to know such wonderful persons in this wonderful world. The wonderful song out a big wide smile on my face. Sing with heart and soul. Very nice video show 🌍 and a “beautiful ring” = sun

[Sam]

Thank you for sharing this wonderful song today! Reminds me that we make this place good or bad based on our thoughts and actions. What God created for us is wonderful but how we live our life determines our experiences. This week, I heard about the deaths of great actors as well as people we knew personally. Made me realize again that our life is ephemeral here and how important it is to consciously choose how we spend our time here. Would others be benefitted because we lived?

On a more analytical thought, we have to also realize that our minds are biased for Loss aversion. We worry much more about losing something than about gaining something of equal value. If we keep that in perspective, we will start to appreciate much more of the blessings and goodness we find around us, even when we might disagree with others on something.

[BHSC]

Great song.. and true wisdom
Take care!

[I am from Penang]

What a wonderful song. I agree with you that the world has been created to be wonderful but it is us that make it not so wonderful. Let us together appreciate what we have and take good care of it.