Are We Okay? Is Anyone Feeling At Peace?

Is anyone doing exactly what they want to do creatively and otherwise? Are we all just floating in this ether of dissatisfaction? Why is our collective resentment being worn like a badge of honor?

I’m tired of seeing Facebook, Twitter, Instagram statuses about how someone’s day is terrible and isn’t traffic the worst and isn’t this person or that person doing something absolutely abhorring just by existing and having a different way of life. I’m tired of overhearing conversations about how someone can’t wait until it’s Friday or until it’s closing time or until they can get a drink because they need a drink.

We’ve picked up snark and complaining and frustration and unhappiness and discontent like it’s a bad habit we can’t shake. We can’t even let someone else be happy, lest we tear them down with our words and our conversations and our tweets. We’re so used to “haters” and “trolls” and people who are “just jealous” that we don’t even think twice about WHY. We just grow around them, get used to them, and chalk it up to something like, “you know you’re doing something good when the haters come out!” That’s a sad justification.

Haters. Trolls. These people who say terrible things because they’re “just jealous.” These are people like you and me who are so overcome with the debilitating state of their own life that even the thought of someone else flourishing inspires a type of vitriol you would think would be reserved for pedophiles alone. I’m sick of having to be strong, having to ignore the haters, having to brace myself when I look at online comments, having to tune out conversations around me that are never, ever, ever about something good and compassionate and beautiful.

It’s just… constant pain all around us. How did we get here? How did we get so backwards that we can’t even recognize our outward frustration as a symptom of inward pain? How did we become so out of touch with the impact we have on others, so much so, that everyone, especially on the internet, needs to “toughen up” to look at comment sections, to look at Twitter replies, to check their responses to an Instagram photo?

I don’t want us, as a human race, to constantly be on defense. We live in a culture where our shields against pain are more happily received than our actual pain. We live in a culture where our vulnerability and rawness is more shameful than literally hating on another person for what they stand for. We are holding onto values we don’t even understand so tightly that we can’t even allow the chance for someone to present an opposing view. We’ve become so fixed, so inflexible, that we spend our days in constant battle, defending our positions, positions that don’t even serve our goodness, that don’t bring us into the light, that aren’t going to give us peace!

We know that perfection doesn’t exist and we don’t strive for it, but then we want everyone around us to subscribe to our way of thinking, to look the way we want them to, to be as happy or as miserable as we are, so that we never have to face ourselves or bring our own pain into the light.

And, why.

It’s braver and stronger to face what’s in front of us, instead of deflecting it. It’s easier to allow, rather than to close up. It’s easier to open your mind than to close it. It’s easier to expand energy than it is to constrict it. It’s easier to look inward and change and grow than it is to expect the world to be exactly the way you want it to, so that you can avoid yourself. It’s easier to find enjoyment in your day rather than slog through it. It’s easier to put your best effort into your work rather than spend the day watching the clock. It’s easier to let go than it is to hold tightly to everything. It’s easier to present the messy than it is to present the perfect.

Simply put: it’s easier to love than it is to hate.