People don’t have to live in fear, and many don’t. From Paul Rosenberg at freemansperspective.com:
Several years ago, an unusual set of events found me at Starbucks on a Saturday night. It had been a reasonably decent day, but there are, as we all know, plenty of things in this world to be depressed about. And those things, as we also know, are massively amplified by the attention-seeking class. Somehow, the parade of negativity had its effect on me.
Sitting in the Starbucks cured me.
What I Saw
It was a very average Starbucks in a very average location. And the very average people sitting with me were a nearly perfect cross-section of the American demographic.
To my left was a middle-aged black man, doing something on his laptop. Just past him was a middle-aged white woman doing the same. Past her, in the corner, were three teenage girls – one black, one white, one Latin – studying together.
Behind me was another black man with a laptop and piles of papers, and past him a young couple falling in love over lattes.
At the big, center table was a 25ish woman, with multiple piles of paper upon which she was working very hard. After a while, her boyfriend showed up. She hugged him, laid her head on his shoulder, and they kissed. It was sweet. Then he got to work with her.
There were also people coming and going. They were more of the same: A cross-sectional American parade of people behaving quietly and well.
Watching these people, I decided that it would be far better to spend time helping them than to obsess over all the bad things in the world. These are the people who deserve our efforts.
