So, does anyone out there think California is a “bad” place? The people there MUST have “loose morals,” right? They were the first state to legalize marijuana, after all. And what about all those movie stars with wild lifestyles? Or what do you think the rest of the world thought about ALL the people in Germany when Hitler was playing tyrant over Europe?
We will never understand the full story behind anything, but some things are revealed to us. I did wonder about California's reputation, but I didn't give it a lot of credit. Then when I visited California, I found there are a lot of farmers, cows, vendors, wee towns, and just regular people like the rest of us. So maybe their government is forward thinking and maybe some of their movie stars do drugs and have wild parties (like most of the rest of America and beyond; we are just not in the news), but the bulk of the state is beautiful inside (people) and out (land) and not worth getting our “knickers in a knot.”
As for Germany, which is a wonderful place, if you have any questions about the bulk of the people’s attitudes during WWII read the book “The Book Thief.” The author (Markus Zusak) tells the perspective of the “little,” ordinary people just trying to survive amid the horrors taking place (in some of the most beautiful writing I have ever read).
How do you think the rest of the world perceives us, the USA? I heard once that many “regular” people in the world think we are all rich, spoiled brats, which may be true of some of us – rich or not rich – but certainly not most of us. Statistically speaking, while we are mostly admired for our technological innovations, entertainment, military, and universities, our health care system is largely considered the worst for a developed country, we handled covid-19 badly, and some think our standard of living is below average or the worst. Of course, some think the opposite.
There is a lot of truth in the US statistics, but there are plenty of statistics that ranged from poor to great for each subject. It has a lot to do with perspective. What is valued, what their own culture/practices are, etc. or even jealousy. So what does all this tell us about people? When we look at people that we have heard or known something negative about, how do we look at them overall? Is the USA still a great place to move to even though there are some not so great things about it? Can we look at people this way? When someone screws up, does that mean they are to be ignored or judged? Are they no longer viable human beings? Haven’t we all messed up at times? I’m not saying we should trust everyone (because plenty of people are not trustworthy), but giving someone the leeway to change – with encouragement – might just be the thing they need to do it. After all, most of our best learning curves come through our mistakes.
Be careful, but live in love. We don’t have to be BFFs with those we’re unsure of, but we can treat them respectfully in the hope that it will help them grow in more positive ways. Whether it helps them or not, we will be a better person for it.
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