One of the most common complaints I hear lately is that the world seems dark. The biggest problem I have with this complaint… is I can’t deny it – the world seems pretty dark. Whether it’s the influence of selfishness promoted through social media or the lack of healthy religious influence that promotes treating others as you want to be treated, there seems to be growing darkness in the world. This past week, my wife and I finally took our minivan in to be fixed after it was hit by a drunken schizophrenic in a rage against his family as described several lessons ago. Side story, I had the brother’s phone number who had been helping his parents on that crazy morning, and after a couple weeks, I messaged him to see how things were going for them, and guess what I heard… nothing. I messaged a week later and… nothing. I know it’s the right number because he originally texted me, which means he’s either now hiding from me because of the associated embarrassment or he just doesn’t care enough to respond. Either way, people not responding to messages I send, in general, is a constant issue I face even with friends, which adds to the feeling that the world is getting darker – people can’t even bother to respond to a hello.
With the minivan in the shop getting fixed, my wife took our other vehicle to Walmart to pick up a few things – we’re classy like that. While beside the car and right after getting all three girls into a buggy including the baby, she heard “Bang!” My wife turned to see that a runaway, heavily loaded grocery cart had rammed into the back corner of the other side of the car. Before my wife could get the cart with the three girls over to look at the car, an older guy grabbed the runaway cart. In my wife’s typical friendly-to-strangers voice, she asked him, “Did it scratch the car?” His response? “It was already scratched.” If that was true, how creepy would that be? It means he would’ve been stalking her enough to know the scratches on the car. Assuming he was a jerk and not a creep, my wife replied, “It wasn’t scratched before.” I’m sure you’re thinking if he scratched the car and got called out on it he would naturally apologize, and he would have… if he’s wasn’t a serious jerk. His response was to scream at her, “Mind your f’ing business.” You know, the kind of thing you yell at a mom when you’ve damaged her property and there are three little kids watching. He then continued to swear at her as he put his stuff in the car and drive off. People like this are making the world seem darker.
Fortunately, there is hope because the darker the world, the brighter a simple light becomes. Our world is ready for there to be light, and there are moments this still happens. Last weekend my wife dropped her phone somewhere and where did we find it after looking up “Find my phone”? In the ditch in the middle of nowhere off the 403 between Hamilton and Brantford in giant reeds that made it impossible to find anything because someone must have found the phone and then threw it out of their car window when they realized they couldn’t break into it. That was definitely not the story of light I was going for, but this led to some good moments. For instance, my sister gave my wife an old phone… it was too old to be her permanent one, but it was helpful while we figured out a plan. My sister also gave my wife a kind of purse to help keep her phone from getting lost again. Of course, the strap broke the first time my wife used it, but the store was good and let it be returned allowing my wife to get a better one. After a few days, my plan was to upgrade my own phone and give my current one to my wife, but after talking to a salesman, it turned out my plan wouldn’t allow that. As I was about to leave the store, the salesman mentioned his dad just upgraded his phone and I could buy his old one at what seemed like a really low price. The phone ended up being a step above mine and in even better condition. After buying it and taking it to a different cell phone store for a screen cover, the worker there looked at it and told me I was given an amazing deal. To be honest, I assumed I was going to be screwed over, so it was a huge relief to hear that. The worker who sold me the phone took a chance by telling me he was selling it and gave me a great price, which has left me incredibly grateful for this moment of light.
One of the greatest light bringers to the world was Walt Disney. Besides Mickey Mouse, his creativity and drive created ideas and technology that changed how we do things today. I’ve been watching the show, Behind the Attraction, on Disney Plus and it’s incredibly fascinating. I had no idea how influential he really was beyond movies. It’s crazy how easy it is to take things for granted at Disney World because they seem so naturally perfect. For instance, the creation of certain rides like the Jungle Cruise took many turns and changes (putting a jungle area where there was only orange fields will do that) or how Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim was the first hotel ever aimed at families and not just businessmen. Walt needed his neighbor and friend, Jack Wrather, to finance and own the hotel because he didn’t have any more money beyond Disneyland at the time, but he retained some control. Both Walt and Jack cared more about creating family experiences rather than just making money, and hotels like theirs has inspired places like Great Wolf Lodge today. Even the monorail was a genius Walt idea that came out of his love of trains and goal to reduce traffic issues in Los Angeles. The local government originally agreed to install monorails in the city, but they unfortunately changed their minds keeping LA traffic a dream for people who love pollution and wasting time in gridlock. Now the monorail is only really utilized in parts of China where their technology is more advanced while place like Toronto and Hamilton put in LRTs that have a habit of breaking down.
The most important story I learned from these documentary shows for today’s lesson was Disneyland was created because of a simple moment where Walt was at Griffith Park watching his daughters on the merry-go-round and thinking there should be a place where adults and children could go to have fun together. His love of creating ways for families to come together led to the happiest place on earth (even though now it’s more like the most expensive place on earth). These shows have made me a serious fan boy of Walt as I’ve learned how dedicated he was to making the world a better place through technology and loving your neighbor – the benefit of his Irish Catholic background that placed strong emphasis on family (something the Disney Company seems to have lost as they’ve become more political).
Fortunately, you don’t have to create an empire in order to make the world a better place. There are small ways we can make it better. Before I look at this list, however, it’s good to remember that we can go too far trying to be a light. We can try so hard we burn ourselves out or as discussed in last week’s lesson, helping makes the world better while enabling allows others to be stagnant and terrible. We should always be friendly because we don’t want to become the darkness ourselves, but we need to be careful not to enable turds to be turds rather than letting them become like fertilizer that’s useful to the world.
So how can we be lights? It doesn’t take anything great. It’s often very simple:
- Do your job well (unfortunately something forgotten by many people today).
- Have a job and volunteer where appropriate (another idea that people seem to have forgotten).
- Don’t gouge people when you buy or sell something.
- Be polite (i.e. say please, thank you).
- Be quick to say, “Excuse me” and “I’m sorry,” if you bump into others.
- Take responsibility (and apologize if needed) for your own actions and don’t pass the blame.
- Greet strangers you pass on quiet streets or in halls with a smile and/or hello.
- Say yes when you should be saying yes and no when you should be saying no
- Send messages to people to say hi and check in
- Actually respond to messages from people instead of leaving them hanging.
- Ask engaging questions to encourage others to share.
- Laugh with people and learn not to take things personally or be offended.
- Pick up litter on the street and/or bring any recycling and green bin items home to be properly disposed of when you go to a restaurant.
- Take care of yourself, so you’re naturally in a better mood for others
- Do something surprising friendly.
The other month I was in Buffalo at a Walmart with my sister and my two older girls after watching Shrek the Musical at Shea’s Theater (a place I highly recommend you find an excuse to visit). While in the toy aisle, there was an older black man I’m guessing in his early 60s was there with an attractive black woman I’m guessing in her late 30s who may have been his daughter or wife (he could’ve had game). And with them were two boys around eight, and with a giant wad of bills in the man’s hand (I said he could’ve had game), he handed each boy a five dollar bill. Walking past them I asked, “Is this where you line up for free money?” The woman burst into laughter while the older man’s face remained neutral. (Yeah, he probably didn’t have game) I continued walking past, but when I turned around to see where my girls were, I saw the older man giving my girls each a dollar bill. They were in shock (they’d never seen an American bill or a dollar bill for that matter – why wasn’t it a coin?), and I was in shock because of how kind that was. It was only a dollar, but it meant so much to my girls since it was so random and they got to buy candy. The reality is if he’s at Walmart he’s not a millionaire. There’s even a good chance I make more money than he does (although with the exchange rate I could be making less than some of the Walmart employees making minimum wage). The amount, however, didn’t matter. It was the gesture. It was so kind, and it blew me away. For two dollars he helped restore a little of my trust in humanity.
This week may you help make the world a better place.
Rev. Chad David, ChadDavid.ca, Learning to love dumb people (like me)