We Must Change

All was silent except for the pitter-patter of our feet bouncing on the sidewalk. My mother’s stride was long and purposeful while my footsteps were quick and short; the footsteps of a child. A thick mist had settled on our tiny town, coating everything with a fuzzy texture. The dew could still be seen peeking out of the grass like little twinkling faces in the streetlights. We were walking past the fire station and much to my delight; a fire engine was parked in front. My face lit up as if I were watching Apollo 11 take off.

We were crossing the street. A man was at the wheel of a silver pickup and was driving far too fast for the mist. He saw us and slammed on the brakes. The man gave my mother a dirty look and shouted an obscenity in the air. My mother returned his dirty look and sped our pace up to cross the street.

But I didn’t notice any of this. After all, there was a fire truck right in front of us. My virgin ears were untouched.

We continued walking down the road. There was a tall building that was huge in proportion to my miniature self. I looked up in awe. A couple teenagers, probably fifteen or sixteen years old were sitting on bikes on the sidewalk. One of them had a McDonald’s cup and was slurping away. After a moment the drone of an empty cup echoed around and the boy proceeded to chuck it across the road. The teens laughed and started biking away.

But I didn’t notice any of this. The building was way too big and I just kept gazing right on up.

And so we continued walking right on down the road.

We were approaching our destination: the donut shop. As soon as we rounded the corner and I saw it I blew into a full on sprint. As I ran, I passed an advertisement of a very scantily clad girl in a suggestive position. The poster portrayed the woman like an object; there was no other way to put it.

But I didn’t notice any of this. I was gonna’ get my donut!

I’ll be honest. I miss the days when things were that simple – the days when I could simply fixate on something and just B-Line it to that thing. Nothing else mattered. That is not to say that being a child is not hard; it most certainly is. Simple things make you sad but emotions are almost distinctly black and white. Happy or sad. Smiles or frowns. Good or bad.

Yet, even though our children may not be noticing these things on the street while they are young, what does it say about to society? These are things that are all too common today and whether our children notice them or not, they still see them. I guess what I’m trying to say with this post is that you never know who’s watching and simple actions can change lives. Now that I am an adult and I see these things on a daily basis it makes me sad. Sad that society just doesn’t seem to care anymore. Sad, on a level, that I am sentient enough to see these things and process them. Sad that so few of us make real efforts to change this world and so many sit back and let that McDonald’s cup just roll down the street.

It’s our world now. Humans have dominated all but nature on this planet. And though we still measure small in the face of Nature’s might; we can dictate what defines our species. Our culture can be altered. It can be changed. Right now it is not a positive culture – but we can make it that. It isn’t even a difficult process. It’s the theory that if every human contributes a tiny amount we have a mass culture that is so beautiful and astonishing that our world is exponentially improved. Simple actions. (See my previous post on this here). Don’t give in to road rage. Don’t throw that cup on the ground. Don’t feed into objectifying advertisements. There are so many little things that we could change and it all starts with you. It starts when you wake up tomorrow and decide whether you want this world to stay the way it is or not. I’m not saying you have to roll a boulder up a cliff. Let’s all just be human for once and care about each other and take care of the world that we live in.