In today's society, there is so much hatred surrounding everything, I'm sure you've heard this sentiment many times before. It is easy to go around saying how much you hate everything, but what does this solve. Maybe temporary relief, but overall nothing. I'm so tired of hearing all this negativity. I hear things every day that make my skin crawl.
The other day while at work we were playing a game that involved teams. As the kids separated off and faced each other a roar of "boos" came from each opposing team. The culture of booing another team has become a tradition in our society at sporting events and anything where there might be rivals. I'm not exactly sure how this came to be, but it dawned on me how mean the act is. When you are booing someone else you are making a decision to be mean. It may not be deliberate or malicious, but nonetheless, we boo with the intention to make someone feel lesser than us.
This is when I decided to stop the game to have a little chat with my campers. By letting the booing continue I felt as though I was contributing to a larger problem. When I asked them why they were booing the other team none of them had a real answer. None of them knew why they were booing it had just become part of their culture to begin this taunt when playing a game against others. The problem with this is that it has become a learned habit, for all of us. We have taken to these taunts as a mechanism to tear others down instead of simply just cheering for our own team.
If you think about it, it makes much more sense to focus cheering on your own team at a sporting event, rather than wasting your time screaming at the other team. This is why I believe it is so much easier to spread kindness. It takes less than a few words to brightens someone's day, the same can be said about ruining someone's day, but which would you rather do.
I know it can sometimes be hard to spread kindness but the more you do it, the easier it gets and the better the world for it. So please, say something kind to someone today, hold open a door, pay for someone else's coffee and radiate positivity.
