"A Time of Error" by Richard F. Yates

I don't think we, as a species, have reached the point, psychologically, where we can deal with a GLOBAL conception of reality. We are tribal. Our heads can't wrap around a million people. We probably can't even think in terms of thousands.

We think about OUR neighborhoods, OUR workplaces, OUR social cultures (schools, churches, clubs, cliques, gyms, shopping centers, concert halls, maybe a few online groups), but most people---this isn't a judgement, it's psychology/sociology---don't venture much further than what they experience in LIFE.

But our eyes have now been opened to this whole GLOBAL existence. There are billions of people out there. People being born, people growing old, people learning and building and playing and procreating and getting sick and experiencing loss and dying. Billions.

And we can't grasp it. It's too big.

We're having all of this info jammed into our brains by social media, by newspapers and magazines, by television, by the discussions in our social groups...and it's too much. We're stressed. We're frightened. We are either angry or horrified or confused or depressed---all the time... (Or medicated so we WON'T be those things.)

But I hope we can learn from these awful times. I hope we can see the terrible things that are happening and decide that we want the world to be better. AND---because we can't MAGICALLY fix the entire world all at once...it's too big for us to even begin to comprehend on a global scale---I hope we start to realize that what we CAN do is start by making the LITTLE places, those places we live and experience on a daily basis, better.

One inch at a time.

Make your house more peaceful, more accepting, more AWARE. Be nicer to the folks you live with. READ more---fiction and non-fiction. Try to learn to relax and stress less. Be DELIBERATE with what you do, and think about how you eat and talk and what you buy---and what the consequences of those actions might be. When you are calm and more deliberate and more considerate, you'll be more of a pleasure to be around (and you'll feel better.)

THEN you can start moving out into your community: be nicer to your family and friends and coworkers and the people you see at the store and your school and at concerts and other social events. Lead by example, and help others to understand that acceptance and cooperation and unity and positivity make EVERYONE feel better and have better lives.

You don't have to look like someone else to be nice to them. You don't have to go to the same school or read the same books or listen to the same music or like the same foods or believe the same ideologies to be polite and kind and helpful. You just have to be a decent human being. You just have to be calm and respectful and patient.

AND NOT A FUCKING GREEDY BASTARD OR A RACIST, BIGOTED, SEXIST, HOMOPHOBIC, IGNORANT, VIOLENT ASSHOLE.

See, it's so simple! Be nice to people, however they dress, or whatever languages they speak, or wherever they or their ancestors were born, or (and a know this is a tough one, but it really will help) even if they don't believe the same stories that you do. It's not hard to be polite and courteous, and it helps EVERYONE have a better day.

And if you DON'T be nice, we'll all end up murdering each other, and everyone will die a screaming, burning, awful, bloody mess. And that seems less pleasant to me than just being polite.

So sayeth the Holy Fool, Disciple of the Winged Serpent!!! Now go read a book...

---Richard F. Yates (H.F.)

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