Where is the Love?

One of the conscious changes I have decided to make is to have a more positive outlook on things and people that affect me on a daily basis. It might not change the way things are; but at the very least, it will change how I look at things, and how I react to them.

This is a lifelong habit that I have cultivated; so I have to be conscious of it, and make a focused effort to eliminate. It ain't easy. I find that I put myself in check so many times a day. Over the simplest things.

"Why all this stupid traffic? This is irritating." Check. Readjust. "I can't clear the traffic; but I love the song playing on the radio." I arrive singing, not peevish and irritated. A minor victory. :)

There's another thing I noticed in the process. I am not alone in the mire of negativity. It pops and crackles all around me. I see it in my students as they are embroiled in the mire of self-deprecation or criticism of each other. It can get nasty. I see it in my colleagues who are just as dissatisfied with our working environment as I am. Nothing seems to work right.

But in focusing on what goes wrong, what is wrong, we perpetuate it. We make it bigger than it is. We make it overwhelming.

On the other hand, if we focus on the positive, no matter how minor it seems, we perpetuate that. It becomes bigger. It glows. It overshadows the negative.

I smile at a student in the hallway. "Nice hat!" I say. The student smiles and takes it off. Further down the hallway, another teacher is yelling at a student for not taking off his hat. They get into a confrontation. It's a shit-storm. Over a hat.

It's all in the approach.

I was waiting in line to pay a traffic ticket. A long, messy, disgruntled line. I watched as person after person took their frustration out on the clerk. The interactions were like car wrecks. One after the other. The clerk's face became angrier and meaner, with every person in front of me. My turn approached. I was not happy standing in line, nor in the prospect of the waiting ahead of me. It was one of many lines that I would have to go in... I smiled at the clerk. I said, "Good afternoon." The turbulence cleared on her face and she smiled back.

Now, I would like to say that because of my smile I got my ticket paid off faster. That isn't the case. It turned out that while the office is open until 4:30 pm, you effectively waste your time going there unless you have secured an "audience" with the prosecutor before 12:30. The clerk did go out of her way to give me some valuable pointers, pointers she would have not shared had I been one of the clan of Crustoids that preceded me, and no doubt would follow.

I left the place without having achieved anything, but at least I left with my blood pressure in tact, a smile on my face, and the sunshine to accompany me home.

And in the end, isn't that all that matters?