THERE'S GOOD OUT THERE

While my life is fine; I still always find a cozy refuge every night and all's well at home, when I look around the world I feel heavy and sad.

Every trendin' topic and headline points to a world that is crumbling. Politicians seem more ruthless and self-serving than ever, criminals are destroyin' lives and victims are being doubly victimized by a joke of a judicial system, the latest disgustin' lack of regard for human life by terrorists is splashed across social media every few days and I've found myself wonderin' what kind of world I'd someday bring children into.

I've felt myself becomin' angry, bitter and withdrawn.

And then this evenin' as I was havin' dinner I was reminded of an incident that occurred durin' the day. I was in the market jugglin' a huge bag of food stuffs, my wallet and a bag of clothes and just couldn't find the shortest way out of the market. As the rain drizzled, I wiggled, tryin' to get through the little opening in the midst of the human traffic, while hopin' I hadn't drop the half a dozen eggs cradled in the thin bag now hangin' over my shoulder.

At this time, someone hit me from behind and my wallet fell. I was this close to losin' it when a young boy approached me and without saying anything, smiled and passed me my wallet from the other end, before movin' closer to readjust the bag that had been slippin' down my arm.

"Thank you." I mumbled, grateful and relieved. However, after he walked away, I felt shell shocked. Why did he help me? I checked my wallet to see if it still held my phone. Turns out the poor boy wasn't a pick-pocket afterall. He just noticed me strugglin' and helped.

But why did he? Because most people are like that.

That young boy who helped me in the rain will never trend on Facebook. His face won't be flashed across the news over and over. But his act reminded me that while the stories in our faces are usually awful, the real world; the one we interact with every day, is filled with goodness and kindness.

We shouldn't let current events and politics make us bitter. We shouldn't let the bad few rot all of mankind for us. We shouldn't allow headlines to poison our hearts against each other.

I still have hope for us and I hope you do, too . Be good, be kind, bloom!

THINGS I'M LEARNIN' TO BE OKAY WITH ON SOCIAL MEDIA

Improper grammar (case in point: the title above is prolly incorrect)

Inappropriate caption (what has a sentence like "Vengeance is of the Lord" got to do with the picture of a supermarket?)

Obscene images (not a single day goes by without a photo-epileptic sufferin' an attack)

Misleadin' info (ever seen the picture of a president at some conference or a catchphrase like "10ways to lose weight", only to click the adjoined link to see a site that talks religion?)

Undecipherable abbrievations (even when the supposed short form has the same number of alphabets, if not more)

No punctuation (more like multiple-complex-compound sentences, paragraphin' not required)

Misinterpreted words (lemme is an aberration for "let me", not "leave me)

Misattributed quotes (sorry Mugabe, you seem to have "said" so many things you're unaware of)

Perfect pictures (oh well...blame it on our phones and other mobile devices)

Self-acclaimed journalists (the media's primary function is to inform, not so? Therefore anybody online can publish news)

Flawless profiles (What people post on social media are highly curated moments, often depictin' an idea of perfection. But on the outside, we know what's up)

There's more on the list o, but the gloom it causes can slow somebody’s bloom!