Act, Don't React

It's quiet out there. Too quiet. As if on cue, an airplane flies over. A dog barks. Blast. Another promising beginning sent to narrative jail. Let's begin again.

It's not quiet out there. It's eerily noisy. Children scream over at the playground, in the nice way. The sunshine continues, and it becomes a miracle that no-one has brought out a lawnmower to annoy everyone. However, a power saw is heard, and muttering begins deep in the heart of the writer of the Quirky Muffin. Why, oh why, do people like the Summer? Presumably it's not for the insects. Oh, to each their own in the grand scheme of things. Let's not be negative, but positive.

<Thinks for a while>

Positivity has to be found internally in these days of media cynicism and utter pessimism. No change is good according to the powers that try to shape out opinions, and nothing good can come out of people having ideas anywhere. It's of course not true. Good things can come out of current processes like the Exit from the EU, or the eventual aftermath of Trump. Nothing absolutely must be bad. Hopefully, and the hope is really there, we can escape the reporting tyranny, bypassing it completely, and actually find out how things are working in the world. Is it possible? Yes, for we have positivity. Good things can happen! Let's not assume disaster when some measure of success is possible!

How do we find positivity? Much as in 'City Slickers', we can say that the answer to that question is different for every one of us. Some people watch cheering television shows and movies, and read books that they love. Some others lean on the innocence of their children and live vicariously on their optimism. Sadly, some people don't find their inner smile, but they could. It's just a question of finding space to act instead of to react, and in which to relax. Everything in the world is pushing us to not think about what we do. We need to think. That will be next two hundred part lecture, complete with illustrations and cracker recipes. (No, not really.) To think is to plan for better things.

Better things can happen.

O.