It’s difficult to be grateful for what we have

WE whinge about almost everything these days, and social media is a major culprit here, it’s so easy to lash out without facts or details, to criticise rather than praise.

It’s difficult to be grateful for what we have.

I’ve never worked out why it’s so hard but I’m ashamed every time I think how hard done by I feel, when that’s not even close to being true – my life is pretty cruisy and if there are things that could make it easier, that’s pretty much a result of poor decisions I made, decisions that are on me.

It’s an affliction that’s pretty common in Australia these days and I believe it’s a major contributory factor when it comes to the increased levels of anxiety society as a whole is feeling.

I came across this insightful tidbit the other day and it gave me cause to stop and think about how good I really have it, my health, my family, friends, food on the table and so on.

“If you have food in your fridge, clothes on your body, a roof over your head and a place to sleep, you’re richer than 75 per cent of the entire world.

“If you have money in your wallet and can go anywhere you want, you are among 18 per cent of the world’s most wealthy people.

“If you are alive today and healthy, you are more blessed than the millions of people who will not survive this week and die.

“If you can actually read and understand this message, you are more fortunate than the three billion people in the world who are blind, deaf or illiterate.

“Life is not about complaining. “Life is about thousands of other reasons to be grateful and happy,” the message said.

I can’t find who to attribute these comments to, but it really is important to stop, take a breath and really understand that life in Australia, with all the annoyances of things like political parties and the Sydney Roosters, that we do have it pretty good.

It’s interesting that Facebook has followed Instagram and stopped making the number of ‘likes’ public property – hopefully it will stop any crazy minority from making their point of view seem sane and prevent those small groups from changing public policy by appearing to be coming from a position of community support.

But it is a problem that many people skim over social media articles, or don’t even read them, and then lash out with unhinged statements without even bothering to find out if their source was even correct, much less determine whether the article was skewed, or if a complex discussion had been simplified down so much it was in reality meaningless gibberish.

Then you have the self-righteous who, just because they all of a sudden have a public forum of 10 or 20 like-minded humans, feel a need to get on their high horses.

I was reading through a Facebook post from the Koori Knockout this week and people were worried that the south coast may pass up on the event, with talk Dubbo would be more than glad to have it.

One bloke posted that “Dubbo is the a**hole of Australia”.

Showing I have no ability to practise what I preach and stay the hell away from Facebook brawls, I replied with some throw-away line.

This example illustrates perfectly how social media, which can be a great tool in many ways, also has the incredible, inherent ability to escalate and incite.

And when we get so tied up in these meaningless electronic battles, where the opposing armies never so much as sight one another, we don’t have time to sit back, take a calm breath, and realise just how lucky we all are just because we live in Australia. z Note: John Ryan is also a councillor on Dubbo Regional Council, and is also employed part-time by Landcare. He writes here in his capacity as a journalist.