Hattie,
We are currently sitting in a beach house on the rainy, windy Oregon coast. Basketball is on the television, my laptop is open, and you are passed out asleep on my chest. I can feel the warmth of your breath through my t-shirt, and every so often, your tiny fingers flutter against my sides, like the beach grass gently blowing in the wind just outside the door.
You will never quite understand what you mean to me, my precious girl. Maybe it’s because I haven’t had a newborn in nearly four years, or maybe it’s because I’m increasingly aware that this is the last time I will ever experience this. At least until you and your sisters have babies of your own, and I get to feel their little fingers flutter against my skin, or feel the warmth of their breath as they snuggle in just a little closer.
Hattie, our world is a dark place. All I have to do is turn on the news, open my laptop, or look at my phone and I’m instantly presented with some of the darkest parts of humanity. War, famine, political corruption, murder, and blatant disregard for the world that we have been blessed with.
But Hattie, I need you to remember one thing.
For as dark as this world is, and as much evil is being done, there is so much more that is good, redemptive, and world changing. The problem is, they can be hard to find. Good doesn’t generate ratings. The news doesn’t highlight much good because, as a society, we’ve grown accustomed to fear. We’ve been taught to fear what is different, unknown, unusual, or unfamiliar. Media has realized this and plays on our fears.
Don’t listen to them.
Good can win. Evil will be defeated once and for all. You may not get as many clicks, or likes, or followers, but you will make a far greater impact on the world than you can imagine, simply by choosing to see the good in people.
I’ve lived far too much of my life choosing to look critically at people. To see the negative. Maybe it’s the politics, maybe it’s the relentless news coverage, or push notifications. But I’ve come to understand that the good in this world far outweighs the bad. The redemptive far outweighs the repressive. Good is winning, you just have to know where to look.
Life is far too short to live in negativity. To live as a cynic. Yes, be skeptical, but don’t be a cynic. Choose to trust people. Choose to see the good and the light in the people around you. Yes, they will let you down and hurt you, but they were made by their creator and have infinite worth.
This world is a world of dichotomies: Good & evil. Beautiful & ugly. Hopeful & hopeless. Oppression & redemption.
The funny thing is, I don’t ever remember as a child, being offered a choice. I don’t remember consciously choosing to be a cynic. To be a skeptic. It just happens, and it happens so slowly and gradually that you will never see it coming.
Don’t let it happen.
Fight it.
Choose joy. Choose beauty. Choose hope.
The world will be better because of you.