My Darlings,
It has come to my attention that far too many people are living in a great deal of fear, much more than is normal. In fact, many people are absolutely terrified, and it is beginning to affect the physical and mental health of our nation as a whole. It is normal to have a bit of reservation toward something very unusual or something that has proven itself in the past to be dangerous. It is not normal to walk around in fear 24 hours a day. This is what I am seeing and it has to stop.
We’ve all heard the saying, “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is,” and this is a wise saying. It helps people to step back and wonder why someone might offer so much to them for “free,” so I think it’s a good thing. But when we reject everything that is kind because we are so filled with fear, that is not a good thing.
When someone offers you a smile, you can take that smile and give one back. It’s okay. You can take a hand up if you need one, and you don’t have to be afraid of a gesture of kindness. With all the nastiness that is going on in this world (most especially on “social” media), it’s hard to believe that anyone is kind anymore. But there are kind people out there, and they’re not trying to fleece you over. They’re just trying to light another candle in the darkness.
First and foremost, we are literally bombarded with “news” 24 hours a day in 2021, and often that “news” is yellow journalism at best and outright lies at worst. There’s no break from this bombardment, and most of us are too busy and exhausted to track down every piece to see if it is “real.” We also don’t trust the fact-checkers anymore because they have been known to lie as well. Past generations were not continually assailed with “news,” and they were much better for it in terms of their mental condition.
We don’t need to know every single tiny tragedy that happens in every corner of the Earth on a daily basis. There is always something “horrible” happening somewhere. You’ve got no way to prove it’s real for sure, but you can bet the powers that be are going to make sure you know about it . . . so that you will accept their offer of more complete protection. More and more and more protection. “After all, it’s for your own good,” they say.
Then there are the unconscious things that happen, and we are not even aware of the damage they are causing. Here’s one teeny-tiny example: You buy a bottle of over-the-counter medicine, and when you get home, you have to fumble with thick shrink-wrapped plastic on the outside that often requires scissors and a cut on the hand before finally removing it. Then you have to push down hard and turn to open it, but when you finally get it open after the tenth try, there’s a welded piece of foil on the opening that again requires the scissors. Most of us do all of this without even thinking about it. “After all, it’s for your own good.”
But what happens is we have just been utterly bombarded with a subconscious message that everything is full of danger and we must constantly be afraid—and, of course, those who “know better” than us are just protecting us. After all, if we didn’t have all of these “safety” measures, an evil person could come along and taint all the product in the bottle . . . and it would be horrible . . . and we would all die . . . *sigh*
Okay, let me just say here and now that, yes, there are some mean people in the world who might do evil things to you. Those people do exist and they have always existed. Also, sometimes safety measures can be a good thing, and if someone is truly thinking about my safety only, then I do appreciate it. It’s smart to be well informed and to make conscious selections in your day-to-day life.
But let me also say that I am old enough to have lived in a time when there was no welded foil on the bottle opening, when there was no push down with 50 pounds of pressure while turning the cap, when there was no thick shrink-wrap on the entire product . . . and no one died. No one got hurt. We all survived, and we survived well. In fact, we thrived.
“Well, times have changed,” you might say, “Stop living in the past or you’re going to end up dead! You’re playing Russian roulette with a one-shot pistol!” Yes, I know times have changed. I also know that the more things change, the more they stay the same. I know that I can look up a “crime” on the internet and find 500 different sites with countless “facts” supporting countless agendas about the so-called crime. I know that I can often leave an internet search more confused than when I started it with no hope of clarity at a later date because everyone has their own “spin” on it for their own selfish reasons. And the truth is, we’ll never get the truth from them.
Where does that leave you and me? Here’s the good part: It actually leaves us where we always were. It leaves us relying on our own common sense, on our own ability to reason, on our own trust in our local society and family groups and friends. It leaves us with the ability to choose what we need to be “saved” from and how to go about ensuring our safety. It leaves us with the knowledge that while there are bad people out there trying to harm others, there are also people who pretend to be concerned about our safety, and they are wreaking just as much havoc on our mental condition for their own secret agenda.
We can consciously think about what makes sense and what doesn’t, and we can act accordingly. We can realize that while a crime may have occurred on the other side of the world, we can’t change it and internalizing the details serves no purpose but to hurt us. We also can’t change the thousand safety wraps on a product, but we can laugh at them. We can reasonably store some food and water in our basement for emergency purposes—it’s only common sense—and then laugh at the weatherman-turned-drama-king as he spins each tiny storm into a devastating hurricane that has a 99% chance of being a gust of wind and a raindrop.
We can stop taking the comments of internet trolls and bots seriously—whether they’re on our “side” or not. We can recognize that a good 75% of the so-called comments we read are paid for by someone else who wants to steer us in a certain direction—even if that’s the direction in which we think we want to go. And what better a way to steer us than with fear? “I’m just trying to help you,” is the message we’re given. Ah, but the price we pay for our “safety” . . .
So I say to you, don’t let these parasites who prey on the mind hurt you. Turn them off. Tune them out. Ignore them. Laugh at them. Be reasonably aware of your surroundings, of course, and take charge of your own care and safety. Pay attention to subliminal fear mongering and order it right out of your life this instant!
And don’t be afraid of a smile or a kind gesture or a helping hand. Don’t be afraid of love and decency. Know that kindness is everywhere, especially in your own heart. And if you get rebuffed when you offer a smile or a hand, don’t walk away hurt and sad. Walk away with the knowledge that you planted a seed of love, and somewhere, somehow, someday that seed is going to grow and blossom. Seeds of love are much better than seeds of fear. They’re stronger, too.
