Keeping my side of the street clean (mostly)
Let me own two faves - Love Actually (the movie) and Hugh Grant in just about anything, including Love Actually.
“Good’s going to win” is a line spoken by the Hugh Grant character in the coda to Love Actually (made 15 years later.) I hear that line and immediately feel uplifted and warm. Of course, it’s hard to know whether it’s my reaction to Hugh Grant or the promise of “Good is going to win.” I really think it’s the latter. I want it to be the latter.
I do want “good to win.” But there’s a slight hitch in that my version of good, and yours, can often be different. Very different. Are there universal values all of us can agree constitute goodness? After doing a quick literature survey of universal values, and there appear to be, culturally, zillions, I’m going reductionistic. Can we just agree on being, well, nice?
Playing well with others? But, oh gosh, such strong cultural tides pushing me this way and that, inclusive of my words. Eeek! Have I made my human behavioral journey into reflecting goodness sound hopeless?
Might there, possibly, be an internal “on” switch I can lean into when in pursuit of reflecting my good intentions into the world? A switch that automatically tamps down my oh-so human temptation to utter words, mindlessly or on purpose, that are hurtful to others? Hey, stop me any time the buzzer goes off and a great answer appears….
Waiting, waiting, waiting….
Oh, what the heck, until that omnibus “goodness on” switch makes its appearance, I actually do have a solution du jour: keeping my side of the street clean (as much as this fallible human can.) Yep, that’s it. Really creative, eh? And this coming from someone who absolutely hates to sweep!
Perhaps a tad more info…
When I approach being unnecessarily verbally reactive to someone, can I try to remember that I, Jan, can easily become a virus disseminator? Yep, that would be me - sharing psychological and social viruses in the world, as a result of my words. Darn it, they’re viruses, catching, just like the flu!
Sooo, keeping my side of the street clean is just good cultural hygiene. It’s my public health contribution when those viruses are flying around. Many folks think rudeness, or hurtful words, are a self-contained experience, limited to just one person or interaction. Nope, nope, nope. They’re truly a virus that spreads, making the lives of everyone exposed to them more fraught. Do any of us really need more “fraught?”
I mean, folks, haven’t we had enough of viruses? Really.