Sad Sacks Worldwide

I guess it's the world economy. I haven't seen so many glum-faced suits in all my life. Yesterday, I had a meeting in a part of Washington, DC, about ten blocks from my office. It was pleasant, so I decided to walk.

As I walked there and back, I looked at the faces of the people on the street. Of the hundreds of people I passed, nary a one had even the faintest of a smile on his or her face. Most were actively sneering, with their face all wrinkled up into a frown. So sad, really.

I thought about myself, and figured that I didn't need to look that way. I decided to smile. I looked at people right in the eye as I walked along, and smiled directly at them. Sheesh, you'd think that I had the plague or something by the way people reacted. They seemed startled. One guy even jumped off the sidewalk ... I kid you not ... to get away from me. A few people smiled back, and one even said, "thank you... I needed that."

And it seems that sadness runs all over the world. For example, some dolt in the U.K. must have shared one of my YouTube videos with a group somewhere, and then he and a bunch of his friends decided to slam me by attempting to post comments on the video with all sorts of negative, silly, and hateful messages. Jealous types, mostly, with a few homophobes thrown in. There's no need for that; seriously, these guys ought to get a life. They are engaging in this behavior probably because they're sad, scared, and bored. Yeah, some are homophobes, too, so they feel better by spewing venom, just like a kid on a playground calling someone else a name. As a Gay Man, I've heard it all before. Sticks and stones, and all that....

I will ask God to look after them when I say my prayers tonight. And meanwhile, I just go about deleting the attempted comments and blocking the user. They'll soon realize that they can't get anywhere and go bother someone else.

My personal email has been rather active lately with all sorts of neighbors and community activists complaining about this-or-that. Mind you, most of their concerns are legitimate and we need to work together on resolving or working through the issues. But the volume of these messages seems to have increased over the past two weeks. If I did an analysis, I would figure that my "whine and rant" file is about 20% more full than it was before.

Certainly, the bad state of the world economy, led to ruin by the United States and the mismanagement at the top (in both the public and private sectors), has caused many people to become angry, frightened, worried, and afraid. The whole world, it seems, is on edge. It's just too bad that people express themselves in such negative ways. Heck, I'm affected by the bad economy as well. I do what I can to protect our interests and assets, as meager as they are, but there's no reason to spread sadness and gloom. I choose to do the opposite.

H. Jackson Brown Jr. said, "Today, give a stranger one of your smiles. It might be the only sunshine he sees all day." Today more than ever, I will remember that, and do it.