Get Out Of Bed

"In these times you have to be an optimist to open your eyes when you awake in the morning." -Carl Sandburg

Today I picked up a few local papers here in London and the headlines are not good. There are antibiotic-resistant infections spreading through Europe. The fashion world is stunned by a high-fashion robbery. We see mass arrests at Occupy protests and the U.N. Nuclear chief says we "must alert the world" about Iran.

There is so much going on that we can become overwhelmed by it all. An old saying that the world is "going to hell in a hand basket" feels so real to many people. At times we would prefer to remain hidden under the covers of our bed. Maybe if we just sleep in longer, all of the turmoil will pass.

It is redundant to say this, but the world has been going "to hell in a hand basket" since the beginning of time. There is always some issue, some disaster, something bad to report about. The fact is that we are going through a tough time right now and all of our senses are heightened.

What makes it even more profound this time and each time a down period occurs, is that bad news sells. As an example, take this article discussion from 2007 by David Blanchard. In it, the headline in question paints a gloomy forecast. But the actual news is rather positive. Lenna Gonya writes that "...while these stories may sell, they don’t do much to improve our moods, our depression, or our outlook on life. More than ever, people are discovering that they are less and less optimistic about life, and the news may be a contributing factor."

Do not get me wrong, there are a lot of bad things happening in the world today. But most surely there are a lot of good things happening out there as well. We need to understand that goodness does exist and that "getting out of bed" is a good and great thing. There are a lot of good things going on in life that we need to focus on.

Yes, we have to be mindful and concerned of the hardships that exist. But we can not allow that type of thinking to rule the day. If we do, clean water will cease to exist, nations will destory each other, cancer will never be defeated and the universe will never be understood.

Possibility exists in our hopes and dreams. It exists in the optimism that greater things can happen in our lives and the lives of others. Possibility exists and that my friends is the good news.