While scrolling through Tumblr, I came across this picture of a random newly married couple riding their bikes down the street. I only had to glance at it once to feel the joy of the couple radiate off the picture. In today's world, it's easy to get caught up in the negativity, especially after this week. From unjust sentences to heartbreaking acts of terror, it's so incredibly easy to just throw your hands up and hate. Hate the unexplainable, hate how hateful the world is, and hate how confusing and cruel everything can be. But if we do that, if we allow the shutters to come down, we're essentially shutting out all good in the world.
This picture of a random couple riding their bikes provided a little bit of light in the dark for me. I'll never know this couple. I'll never know their story -- where they're from, how they fell in love, whether they're even still together, why they chose to ride bikes away from their reception -- but I recognize how full of life they are. This picture represents a time when they were at their happiest, and after spending a good portion of my week questioning why terrible things happen, I was reminded of the wonderful things that also happened this week.
Eighteen-year-old kids sat with their peers for the last time and threw their hats in the air to celebrate the end of an era. Couples stood in front of their friends and family and promised to love each other for the rest of their lives. Babies were born, families had family dinners, people hosted crawfish boils and cookouts with their closest friends, best friends had girls nights, someone fell in love, someone had their first kiss, people laughed with the ones they love most. I could go on and on.
Yes, right now the world is hurting. We're trying to figure out how someone could just go and enact such unthinkable harm and heartbreak on someone else just because of their race, religion, sexual orientation, sex, etc. We're trying to figure out why this keeps happening. Why every day there's seems to be another shooting, or terrorist act, or rape, or murder, and why nothing ever seems to be going right. But if we allow ourselves to forget about all the happiness and love in the world, hate wins.
So while we go through these dark, unknown times, think of this couple. Think of how incredibly happy and in love they were that day, and apply that love and happiness to your life. Think of the ones you're the happiest with and all the memories you share. Scroll through Instagram and smile at everyone you know posting things that bring happiness to their lives.
The world will always have cruelty in it. That is something that will never change, but that cruelty gets pushed further and further back every time you choose to love a stranger and send a smile their way over dwelling on the hate the world tells you to send their way. So choose love, and as cliché as it sounds, the world will begin to be a better place.
