If We Don’t Have Something Nice to Say, Why Say it?

While I’m all for honest dialogue, there is no disputing that social media has had a Wizard of Oz like impact on our society and how we speak to each other. It’s not a good one at all. In the Wizard of Oz, the Wizard hid behind a machine and spouted out ugly attacks on persons who entered his zone. He belittled them. But, when the Wizard had to come out from behind the machine, he was small in stature because this source of so many personal attacks was just a lost and bitter person. 

It’s become too acceptable to say mean things to each other. It would once be considered rude, and then somehow the varnish on manners, politeness and kindness was just stripped away and oddly some take pride in saying mean, defamatory, and hurtful things. The most common justification we give is the other person has had the audacity to want different things than us, or talk differently than us, or be opposed to our views. And, so, we sling ugly, mean statements at them, and they spew them back at us, and our young kids see all this, and they copy. 

Many of us have become that Wizard, or the Grinch, and we type and speak over media all kinds of attacks, and hope to ruin the happiness or lives or careers or days of others. We have become cold; our hearts have shrunk and we are starting to look smaller and smaller in the eyes of progressed people. 

Love and kindness have never failed to grow a heart, to make someone feel warm and to cause a smile and warm feelings. Try to devote an entire week to sending out only kind emails, articles, blogs and such. Try it. I bet you will find yourself feeling better, bigger in love, and smiling a lot. Turn the other cheek, unless you are seeing an abuse that is clear, and move away from the toxic shouting on the information highway and found in Instagrams, or tweets, or some-other electronic communication of late. 

It’s the better way to live….for you, not just all of us others to whom you write.