There is a website I stumbled upon a couple weeks ago called “Makes Me Think”, where people submit a small post about something that happened to them, or something they witnessed, and this event affected them in such a way that it “made them think”. I love this site not only because it often restores my faith in humanity, but also because it helps keep my life in perspective. Now, I know some critics will claim that some of these submissions were made up or altered to make it a better story (and they do have a point – I noticed nearly perfect grammar/punctuation usage in just about all of them); I might agree with you, but I don’t particularly care if they’re “real” or “fake” – what is real to me is how each story made me think and feel.
With that, I decided to copy a few of these down and give you my thoughts/reactions/reflections on each. Hope you enjoy, and please feel free to comment. And this is a very long post, so while I can understand you not wanting to read it all, I think you should anyways :)
-- “Today, I interviewed a woman who is terminally ill. “So,” I tried delicately to ask, “what is it like to wake up every morning and know that you are dying?” “Well,” she responded, “what is it like to wake up every morning and pretend that you’re not?””
This one was simple in its profoundness; I can’t speak for everyone, but I’d wager that most don’t wake up every morning and truly praise the fact that they are alive (this may just be a youthful state of mind – perhaps the older you get the more you cherish waking up every day). Thinking constantly about your inevitable death is probably not a very happy way to go through your life, but I think if more people would recognize that their time on this world is limited, they’d find a “better” way to spend it. For me personally, I like to keep that big picture in mind – that’s what helps me brush off all the petty differences and arguments that make up day-to-day life, and why I hardly ever get stressed about anything. Sure, I have my worries, fears, and doubts like any other person, but I understand that life does go on; and the fact that someone cuts you off while driving, or makes fun of you, or any other shallow act that hurts/bothers you, all of these are simply temporary pains, and I don’t care to waste my time or emotional energy with them. Getting back to this terminally ill woman’s statement: prior to reading this, I had a sort-of “life’s mantra” to simply enjoy the little things (and I had it before Zombieland too), and when I read her words it only reinforced that feeling. Stop and smell the damn roses – they won’t always be there, and neither will you.
Which leads me to the next submission:
-- “Today, like every day for the last 4 years, my father picked a fresh flower from his garden and took it to my mother. This time I decided to go with him to see her. And as he placed the flower on her grave, he said, “I just wish I had picked her a fresh flower every day when she was alive.””
I have two thoughts on this one. Initially it made me reflect on how we spend our time here, and how we regret not doing things when we had the chance, and so on. I feel I covered those thoughts in the first submission. But then it made me think of the type of husband I want to be; give my wife flowers (every day may be a stretch though), tell her I love her every day and mean it, give her little surprises from time to time, let her know how much she means to me – basically, to love her to the best of my capabilities. Now I realize I don’t know anything about this couple; it very well could have been a great marriage, and not picking her a flower every day was the husband’s lone regret – but the sentiment is there in that he truly misses her and wishes he had done more for her. I think this is a sign of true love, in that you want to do everything you can for your significant other, if only just to see them smile.
Which leads me to the next submission:
-- “Today, I asked my 6-year-old son, “What makes a person beautiful?” And he said, “When they smile.””
Not a whole lot to expand on here, but I really hope this kid keeps his own words in mind and shares them with as many people as he can. Too often our society brainwashes our youth to think that beauty is only skin-deep, which is so detrimental on their development of emotions and personality. When you see a person smile, and I mean truly smile, it really is beautiful. You know that in that moment they are happy, and it can almost be infectious to those around. When I observe people really smiling around me, it does give me a little spark of joy.
Which leads me to the next submission:
-- “Today, a girl who I see every day at work, who’s always the most chipper person in the office, committed suicide.”
My initial thought was on how some people will put up fronts to mask their true feelings – I guess you can call it a defense mechanism. It made me think that even the seemingly happiest person around will have their own inner turmoil, but they try and repress it, or don’t want to burden those around with their problems. I’m not saying this is a bad thing (because really, who wants to be around a Negative Nancy all the time?), but obviously this girl has some internal issues that she probably would have been better off sharing with someone – and who knows, maybe she did try and seek help/therapy, and it didn’t help her. I can completely understand that; some people just don’t want to live anymore. But on a little more reflection, it made me wonder about our daily interactions with people in general, and how some people could literally be on the brink of suicide and no one suspects a thing. I don’t want to seem overly dramatic and claim that a random act of kindness/tenderness would have saved this girl, but maybe it could’ve.
Which leads me to the next submission:
-- “Today, I was in line at the store behind a man holding a dozen roses. When he got up to the cashier’s counter, he realized that the cashier looked sad. The man smiled and said, “I’m buying 11 of these roses for my wife.” And then he handed the cashier the 12th rose. She smiled from ear to ear.”
In combining the suicide from the last submission and the random act of kindness from this one: I know it seems very Hollywood-y of me to suggest this, but perhaps that cashier was contemplating killing herself, and this simple gesture from the man with roses saved her life. The point being, a little gesture can go a long way, and what may seem to be a minor act to the one doing it may have a major impact on the recipient. I’ve always been kind to others, but reading this made me understand that even the littlest things can have the biggest effect on someone – so why not go ahead and do it? This submission just reaffirmed to me that people can still be selfless human beings, and even if it was a conjured story, chances are that one day someone will turn it into a reality. Random acts of kindness will leave both parties with a renewed feeling of happiness and compassion – something I think the world needs a whole lot more of.
Which leads me to the next submission:
-- “Today, I was working in a coffee shop when 2 gay men walked in holding hands. As you might expect, heads started turning. Then a young girl at the table next to me asked her mom why 2 men were holding hands. Her mom replied, “Because they love each other.””
Speaking of things the world needs more of – parents like this mother here. She not only showed her daughter an example of what love really looks like (as opposed from a Disney fairytale), she likely left an impression of open-mindedness on her daughter. Her child will now (hopefully) grow up with the ability to tolerate what one may not personally agree with, and the respect to let people live their own life. It also helps show how the tide is slowly changing in our society, in regards to the perception of gays and lesbians.
Which leads me to the next submission:
-- “Today, at the final home game of the season, the entire boys basketball team at our high school entered the gymnasium in pairs of two holding hands. They did so in protest of the fact that two gay students had been sent to detention for a week for simply holding hands in the school’s hallways.”
In following with the theme of public perception of gays, I think this speaks volumes to the future of this issue. Our current society, while continually improving in the realm of laws and tolerance, still has a reserved opinion of gays. For example, if the TV show “The Bachelor” were to have their next bachelor be a gay man, I think that the ratings would drop because in general people are still not comfortable enough to subject themselves to them. I’m guessing that the majority of the male audience would tune out, with some of the more conservative female audience as well (sadly, I think that if it were a lesbian bachelorette that male viewership would increase tenfold. At least.). I don’t have any data/sources for this claim, but I feel it would be true. And what does this say about our society, if my claims were in fact true? That’s why when I read this submission it filled me with a sense of hope and respect for our future society, in the fact that the young people now already accept (for the most part) that being gay is a part of someone’s identity, and not really a decision they make; this allows for a much greater atmosphere of tolerance (and I don’t particularly like the word “tolerance” here, because it subtly suggests that society just has to “put up” with gays – that’s not the point I’m trying to make); and where there is tolerance there is a ground from which understanding and compassion can bloom. Our future generations, in my opinion, will have a lot of negatives (perhaps a post for another time), but the acceptance and defense of gays in this submission should be commended. It appears that our youth may be able to combat this common social perception: that because someone is different from you, they are wrong/sub-human/etc.
Which leads me to the next submission:
-- “Today, I saw a pretty scary-looking guy who had a tall blue Mohawk and tattoos and piercings all over his body. He was helping my elderly neighbor take her trash down the curb. My neighbor told me afterwards that the guy was just walking by and offered to help.”
I had two initial reactions to this. First, and probably most obvious, is that you simply can’t judge a person’s character based on their looks – you need to observe their actions. And second, that amidst all the pundits claiming that our culture is deteriorating and the kids these days are rude/disrespectful/so-on, it is refreshing to hear the common courtesy and decency still exist. Even if (and especially if) it comes from the unlikeliest of sources. Now, I’m not arguing against those who say that our society is more rude/selfish/etc than previous decades (and I can only take their word for it anyways), because I witness rudeness and the like every day; but I do say there is hope for us yet.
Ok, that is all for this edition. I have many more submissions written down in a notebook, so I will be back with more. Thanks for reading! I hope these stories affected you as they did me. And as a little bonus (because I love dogs) here is one more.
-- “Today, after I watched my dog get run over by a car, I sat on the side of the road holding him and crying. And just before he died, he licked the tears off my face.”
Well I can’t end on a downer! Here’s one more.
-- “Today, I went ice-skating. Everyone skating was young, except one guy in his mid-50’s. He kept falling down and smiling. And all the kids kept laughing along with him. I asked him why he decided to skate today. He said, “I was at work earlier and realized I had never been ice-skating. So here I am.”
Have a nice day :)
[post composed listening to a mellow mixture of music]
