COLUMN: What can you do in the face of the world’s travails? – Enid News & Eagle

What can you do?

How many times have you said that to yourself of late?

The world, to put it bluntly, is a mess.

Theres rampant inflation, soaring energy prices, a crippling drought, record high temperatures, runaway gun violence, the seemingly unending scourge of COVID-19, the whole Jan. 6 debacle, something called monkeypox, a baby formula shortage, the battle over abortion rights, the brutal war in Ukraine, and the list goes on and on.

Its enough to make the average person throw up their hands and say, what can you do?

But that, rather than a desperate admission of the average persons impotence in the face of global crises, is a fair question.

What can you do?

You can start by simply being nice. Smile at a stranger, say hi, make a connection. Human beings are certainly far from perfect, in fact we are the source of all the worlds woes, but we are the best hope we have. Its not like we can sit back and let the animals run things. We saw how badly that turned out in the Planet of the Apes movies.

And artificial intelligence? Please. Unless your Siri is way smarter than mine Ill take my chances with the flesh and blood brand of smarts, thanks.

What can you do?

Follow the rules. Not just the big ones, like the 10 Commandments or the Golden Rule, but all of them. Dont run that red light. Dont roll through that stop sign. Dont turn without signaling. Dont speed. OK, dont speed too much, anyway.

Go out of your way to do something for somebody else. Or dont even go out of your way, do something simple. Hold the door for somebody, for instance. Pick up a piece of trash on the sidewalk. Put your shopping cart in the corral thingie in the store parking lot. Offer someone your seat in the waiting room if they are older and less mobile than you.

You have no idea what anybody else is going through. You dont know the burden they may be carrying, the pain they may be feeling, the hurt they may be harboring. They are not coming from the same place you do. Nobody is. We each are on our own path.

What can you do?

Dont judge. Dont stick up your nose if you dont approve of someone elses choices. As long as they are not hurting you, how they live their lives is none of your business.

The Bible is filled with admonitions about judgment. My favorite comes in Matthew 7:3, Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brothers eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye. In other words, worry about your own life before you think about meddling in someone elses. Each of us has more faults than we can shake a plank at.

Be kind. Ive heard of killing someone with kindness but as far as I know nobodys died from it yet. Offer to help a neighbor, a friend, a stranger, with something big or small. And smile, darn you, smile.

Dont label people. Dont pigeon-hole them. Our world is divisive enough without ordinary citizens contributing to that schism. Red or blue, black or white, gay or straight, conservative or liberal, carnivore or vegan. In the big scheme of things, none of that really matters. We are all human beings, with the same basic wants and needs.

What can you do?

You can pray, certainly, if youre a mind to, but not everyone is. I wish they were. I wish everyone believed as I do, but they dont. In fact, belief in God has dropped to a new low in America, with only 81% of Americans responding to a recent Gallup poll expressing a belief in the Almighty. Thats the lowest figure since the Gallup folks first asked the question in 1944. I guess those of us who do believe just need to pray harder.

Respect everyone. Be sensitive to peoples feelings. Listen and be empathetic. Dont look down on anyone. Love everybody.

Will doing all of that help solve the worlds problems? No, of course not. But it just may make someones day better, and if you have made someone elses life somehow easier you, my friend, have had a pretty darn good day.

What can you do? A lot, as it turns out. Now go out and do it.

Mullin is an award-winning writer and columnist who retired in 2017 after 41 years with the News and Eagle. Email him at janjeff2002@yahoo.com or write him in care of the Enid News & Eagle at PO Box 1192, Enid, OK, 73702.

We are making critical coverage of the coronavirus available for free. Please consider subscribing so we can continue to bring you the latest news and information on this developing story.

Click for the latest,full-access Enid News & Eagle headlines|Text Alerts|app downloads

Mullin is an award-winning writer and columnist who retired in 2017 after 41 years with the News & Eagle. Email him atjanjeff2002@yahoo.comor write him in care of the Enid News & Eagle at PO Box 1192, Enid, OK, 73702.

The News & Eagle has traditionally published personal opinions of writers and readers through editorials, columns and letters to the editor on its Opinion Page. The opinions shared are those of the writers and not the newspaper.

Submit your opinion for publication to editor@enidnews.com. Find out more about submitting letters to the editor at https://www.enidnews.com/opinion/.

Original post:

COLUMN: What can you do in the face of the world's travails? - Enid News & Eagle