AFTER BEING REALLY GLUM LAST NIGHT
And talking to my friends about this. I have come to the conclusion that a lot of people live with crippling self-doubt, anxiety about life, and a general hopelessness for their lives. I guess I don’t experience this much because for the most part I am pretty stoked on life all the time. But now this has me thinking, why are the youths in our culture so depressed?
You know why I think it is? It’s because we place our values in the wrong things. People are so driven by material and fleeting things. They care about getting their shoes wet in the rain, they care about buying expensive shampoo for that special shine in their hair, they care about getting jeans that make them look slim and their butt perfectly rounded. (hah) But where is the care in people? Why don’t we worry about comforting the people who get sad when it rains? Why don’t we care about making our faces shine with a smile? In so many cultures around the world people go out and visit in their community and truly live with those around them. Yet here everyone drives back to their houses at the end of the day, shuts their front door and totally isolates themselves. NO WONDER we are so lonely all the time when everyone is focusing on themselves. NO WONDER people find their lives so empty when they try to fill up all the holes in their hearts with the latest iPod. NO WONDER people feel crappy about themselves when we live in a society that is constantly telling us that the way we are is not good enough, but to buy products that will make us into the people we always wanted to be (for three simple payments of 29.99!)
Here’s what I think: talk to people. Get out. Smile at strangers. Donate your money. Pick dandelions and place them on your kitchen table. Laugh. Compliment people. Take photos of things you find beautiful, then share them with people. Draw pictures. Write poems. Lay in the grass. Make silly faces at the baby in the stroller. Eat ice cream. Laugh some more. Sing along to the radio.
Just don’t sit there feeling bad about yourself and miserable, don’t keep going with your life hoping it will just get better some day. Find something that stirs your soul. Appreciate who you are and what you can do. And lastly, GET OFF YOUR COMPUTER.
This is fantastic <3
