Not long ago, Ed and I were driving someplace at the end of a long day and we began to catch up with each other as to what had been happening in our separate worlds.
It seemed as though Ed’s day was one that had “tough/bad news” strung throughout it…he met a guy that held fear around recovering from heart surgery, so and so was found to be acting inappropriately with student athletes, his nephew was about to undergo knee surgery, the stock market was down, he didn’t hear back from an important client….It was as though the road he traveled that day was strewn with things that were really hard and challenging.
As I had come to the end of my own day that had a similar set of stories, I simple turned to Ed and said, “Please tell me a good story…”.
What is it about drama in life that keeps us interested?
All you need to do is watch the news for a nano-second and you’ll know exactly what I mean. Or switch on a “reality” TV program, or talk radio and you’ll hear the tragic back stories of all the people involved. For some reason, it keeps us dialed into that channel…”What happens next? That happened to someone I know! I’m so thankful that’s not MY situation. Wow…that person is really messed up…” and on goes our internal dialogue, our reaction that ties us to it all.
I once heard of a news station that tried to offer only “good” stories and it failed miserably. Do we need to hear the bad to realize how lucky we are? Wow…I hope not. Is it meant to spring us into action, to propel us into a different social consciousness? Two reactions to seeing or hearing about human suffering are:
1. Turn away and pretend it doesn’t involve you; OR
2. Do something about it
I am witness to #2 often within the yoga community. Yogis gather together when they see or hear about a person, place or group that is suffering and will often use a collective energy to help elevate the situation or people into a better place.
I often hear people talk about how much something disturbs them, maybe it’s homelessness, and then they move onto the next subject. How about changing the story? What would it be like when you have the awareness of something that bothers you, that really lights your fire and inner drive and do something about it? What can you as an individual or in a collective group do to affect or change it?
When confronted with a “bad story”, what do you do with it?
Are you able to rewrite a “bad story” into a good one. Please…share with me your “good story”!
