If you look on the bright side of life, you’ll see we have a lot to be grateful for
I’ VE HEARD a number of people recently saying: “We no longer read the newspapers. They just depress us.” I think I can understand how they feel. The news all seems bad these days. If it’s not yet another politician involved in a corruption scandal, it’s a lunatic extremist suicide bomber killing another 50 people in a shopping mall or a foreign journalist being beheaded by a masked IS murderer.
Crazy people in every country seem to be shooting randomly and killing people at schools and shopping malls. What’s wrong with the human race? In fact, there’s a lot of good stuff happening out there, but it doesn’t often make headlines the way it should.
I hear of many organisations collecting clothing for the homeless and orphans. Local supermarkets set up special trolleys where shoppers can donate cans of food for those who are hungry.
Most people seem to want to help those less fortunate than themselves. Many actually do. We should concentrate on the good things if we want to avoid becoming increasingly depressed.
A know a single mother who is trying to teach her small daughter the importance of looking on the bright side of life. She and her daughter have started writing a “gratitude book”. Every evening, before they settle down to supper, they each make their daily entry in it. They write down at least three things for which they should be grateful.
In spite of having leaders who are corrupt and an economy that’s very shaky and an electricity infrastructure that’s teetering on the brink of a breakdown, we have a lot to be grateful for. Here in the Cape we have a good road system, relatively free of potholes, clean, white beaches, mild weather and some very pleasant people around us.
Our wines are among the best and cheapest in the world, our shops are stocked with all the necessities of life and our hospitals and clinics provide reasonable health care. We are not as terrorised, as many people are in the Middle East. We are not fleeing genocide.
I’m thinking of starting my own gratitude book. Instead of reading a newspaper or watching the TV news every day, I’ll make my own news – all of it will be good and all of it will be there to remind me how lucky I am.
Last Laugh
A small boy was standing outside the office of a large city newspaper shouting: “Extra! Extra! City Late. Five men caught in city newspaper swindle.”
One man came up, paid for a newspaper and walked off reading it. Five minutes later he returned, very angry, and said to the boy: “Hey kid, this is yesterday’s newspaper.”
Without turning a hair the boy continued shouting: “Extra! Extra! Six men caught in city newspaper swindle.”