There is an old Chinese curse that goes, “May you live in
interesting times.” If you follow the news lately, these are certainly interesting times. I read somewhere that the Chinese word for "crisis" (to the left) is the same for "opportunity". Apparently, that is a common misperception; even my Chinese friends say so. However, I like the concept. Maybe during these interesting times-these times of national crisis, our society can find the opportunity to do better.
One thing that we need to do a better job at is watching out for each other. When we look at the events in Boston, Cleveland, and Texas, a common tread is that if someone had reported something or done something, we might have prevented tragedy. We are so good at communicating with our cell phones, laptops, notebooks, etc. on Tweeter, Linked In, and Facebook that no one is paying attention to what is happening next door. My mother-in-law used to live with us. She liked to sit at her window and keep an eye on the neighborhood. Nothing ever happened in our neighborhood without her knowing. She was a one-woman neighborhood watch.
I think we have gone overboard on minding our own business and respecting everyone’s privacy. It is time to start noticing when someone leaves a backpack in a crowd unattended, or is reported for being disruptive at a mosque service, or has an unfamiliar women in the backyard, or builds a factory too close to residential neighborhoods without a blast wall.
Let’s start looking out for our neighbors.
interesting times.” If you follow the news lately, these are certainly interesting times. I read somewhere that the Chinese word for "crisis" (to the left) is the same for "opportunity". Apparently, that is a common misperception; even my Chinese friends say so. However, I like the concept. Maybe during these interesting times-these times of national crisis, our society can find the opportunity to do better.
One thing that we need to do a better job at is watching out for each other. When we look at the events in Boston, Cleveland, and Texas, a common tread is that if someone had reported something or done something, we might have prevented tragedy. We are so good at communicating with our cell phones, laptops, notebooks, etc. on Tweeter, Linked In, and Facebook that no one is paying attention to what is happening next door. My mother-in-law used to live with us. She liked to sit at her window and keep an eye on the neighborhood. Nothing ever happened in our neighborhood without her knowing. She was a one-woman neighborhood watch.
I think we have gone overboard on minding our own business and respecting everyone’s privacy. It is time to start noticing when someone leaves a backpack in a crowd unattended, or is reported for being disruptive at a mosque service, or has an unfamiliar women in the backyard, or builds a factory too close to residential neighborhoods without a blast wall.
Let’s start looking out for our neighbors.
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