Optimism at the End of the World 5 : How to make metaphorical lemonade (we skipped #5, oops)
Last time I talked about how I went from basically a pessimistic loser to a version of myself that I could be happy with by creating meaning in my life and learning to make the most out of any situation. I want to give one more example of just making good things happen out of thin air and tie this together with some of my previous posts.
The lemons
I was living in a big, loud, dirty city. It was hot and sticky in the summer, some friends told me in the morning that they wanted to go to the beach a few hours later. I had no plans so by 11 AM we were on our way. I was excited, I love the ocean. It can wipe away all the grime of city, all the static, and it sets my heart back to the default mode of peace and love.
So I got there and we spread out our blankets and got ready to go for a swim. We walked up to the water and.....it was disgusting. The new influx of tourists to the area had made a mess of the place, which had felt like paradise two years earlier. Garbage was literally scattered everywhere. We weren't going to just head home but our excitement had been drained. We tried jamming on the instruments we had brought but we weren't feeling it at all.
The whole experience started to bring up all kinds of negative feelings. Why does everything always go wrong? The earth is being abused, people don't appreciate nature and just abuse her, no one does anything but shop and make the problem worse....the thoughts kept spiraling downward until they couldn't get any lower. I wasn't being unrealistic, that was how it felt and how it was.
Had it been a few years earlier, back when I was full of negativity and always ready to play the victim, I probably would have gone home feeling like crap. Hat mood might have painted my entire week and changed the course of my summer. I had lived most of my life like that. When you are on that road, things get, but they always get worse.
Instead, I thought back to all that Eckart Tolle and Alan Watts I had read a few years prior and the times I spent in nature when I knew a fairly constant sense of peace and harmony and I knew that what I had read was true. I came back to the moment and accepted it as fully as I could. I once again thought of the best version of myself and how he would act in that situation.
The lemonade
My mind was already emptying itself. Without much contemplating I went to a nearby convenience store and purchased some big plastic garbage bags. I walked back and without saying a word to my friends I opened one up and started collecting garbage.
At first no one noticed. Then after I had filled up my first bag, two of my friend came to help, probably out of boredom rather an anything else. We made a game out of it, trying to see who could collect the most garbage in the shortest amount of time. It was fun and good exercise.
Before long, a middle aged man who had just finished his exercise came to help, and then a university age couple. Another friend grabbed a guitar and came closer to us and started jamming and singing to us, free styling and making jokes at us to set the mood. After two hours we had cleared a good chunk of the beach.
The mood had changed completely. We headed to the showers and got ready to go home when the couple asked if we wanted to come back to their place for dinner. It was a good day in the end and we even made some new friends.
You might be thinking that six people on one afternoon might not make much of a difference when the environment is in such a dire state, that companies are spilling gallons of sludge into our water every day, that it won't really matter. But what if our actions inspired similar actions in the future. What if one of those actions inspired a woman or man responsible for the environmental regulations on their companies factories? What if it set the mood for a positive and productive summer for six individuals?
Or so what if it was just one single day with no huge indirect impact on the world? It was still an awesome day.
What kind of lemonade have you made?
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Excellent write! Inspirational and exudes wisdom!
Thanks, hope to see more of your writing
It takes me a long time to warm up to strange new environments but I hope I'm inspired to share and bear.
Thats so powerful! Im glad you helped the planet in that way! Anytime I see something on the ground, I always pick it up. It would be nice to start a community of garbage pick uppers lol :)
The thing that really moved me was how it was a domino effect. Most people want the world to be a better place, they just don't think they matter, they think huge things are all that matters and they can't imagine that huge things start small.
Your post really made me smile! Thanks for the inspiring story. Resteeming!
Thank you, I will check out your posts too!
Yay, hope you enjoy
Enjoyed reading your writeup. The world would be a better place if each one of us cared for our environment. Unfortunately, it's only a very small percentage of people that are even concerned about how we humans are destroying it.
On New Year's eve I went to the bakers' to pick up the cake we've ordered. I stepped out of my car and there was a man standing there. His clothes were dirty and he looked undernourished. I felt bad and offered him some money. He took the money and I was walking away when I heard someone say "excuse me" from behind.
It was the same person. I said, "yes?" He responded, "I'm glad God still creates beautiful people."
I thanked him and left but those words touched me. For some reason, I couldn't stop my tears.
Later, I had the urge to meet him and I did many times after that. He told me that he worked in an executive position and is well educated. Now I sit with him and talk to him when I have the time. I learn a lot from him. He talks about philosophy, Tolstoy's works and everything under the sun. He was a blogger at one time. He now calls himself a yogi.
What saddens me is that I am the ONLY one that talks to him. One day he said to me that I made a difference in his life.
It is this that makes life worth living.
Thank you for a wonderful post!
We are not as few as you may think. Most people care to some degree, they just don't believe they can make a difference. That's one of my focuses in this blog series, trying to help he people who care realize that they do matter, sometimes waaaaaay more Han they think.
Don't get tricked into thinking we are few. Also, it's important to note that the majority just follows others, so there is that critical mass effect. I read a study before, I can't remember much about it but it said something like most big changes in culture reach a turning point and explode once they reach something like 2-5% the population. We can do that！I think we are already there but we need to be more confident that we matter and discuss to consensus about which direction we want to go and how to do it.
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Reminds me of the video in which one man starts to dance alone at a festival and then soon a large crowd joins.
Yes! I strive to be that guy in every occasion! Something is always just waiting to happen but nobody starts it! If it feels good just dance! Or clean the beach, or start a thing!
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Always finding new ways to make me smile :-) thanks @patelincho
You are very welcome :)