Society's Apathy

Society's Apathy

    In every action and in every word we assume and accept that we are affecting the here and now, no one seems to consider the impact they’re making on the future right inside of their everyday routine. We cram ourselves, shoulder to shoulder, into buildings, on buses, and city streets. We pass one another day after day usually without a second glance, let alone, a second thought. Physically we’re all so close, but mentally and emotionally we couldn’t be further apart. That’s proven to me as I sit here watching the way that people interact. An obese woman pushes the half mangled mess of a plate further out in front of her. Half the leftovers spill onto the table without her noticing. Her chubby fingers reach for the last of her soda while a sickly thin man just outside the window pulls his coat tighter in the wind. People sit high up in hotel rooms and apartments they over pay for, with cars the cost of peoples’ homes in parking garages, while a young mother on the streets below struggles with her two toddlers to get 18 blocks for a handful of groceries. A group of people sit joking and laughing; one table over a man sits alone and depressed.

         As a whole we have more than enough resources to ensure that no one needs or wants, but we’ve turned into a “take everything you can get for yourself” society. More times than not if the hungry man or young mother suddenly got what they needed in life or more they would likely turn their backs on and leave behind all the people that are still like they themselves once were.
                                                                                                                  
    Tragically, we have an audience that’s ever watching and taking mental notes as they learn and relearn our behaviors. Our children need our guidance as they look on from their tiny little vantage points. We may think that children hear our words, but our words become inaudible over the screams of our actions. However, we can turn these circumstances in our favor. Why do we sit and complain of society’s depletion, but not take an active stance to change it? Most people struggle to share a smile or an encouraging word let alone a meal, a ride, or their home.

         The cutest little boy walks with his father, his guide through this immense peculiar world. He gazes upward as his teacher speaks harshly to the man on the street. Turns back and watches as the door they just walked through closes on an elderly woman with her walker. What can we assume this child is learning; after all he is collecting data, observing, and analyzing his environment even more so than I am. Unfortunately he is putting together a much more crucial report.

         Suddenly I find myself observing the ultimate observers, our most important critics, our kids. Not just your kids, or his, or hers, ours! I say ours because that’s how we stop this depletion: to think of ourselves as one, as a whole and to teach our children the same. If that man with the child would have spoken kindly to the man on the street or held the door open for the old woman he would have left a completely different imprint on that young boy.

    Another young man walks in with a group of teens. They are all relatively the same age. I recall the little boy and picture that this is him just in fast forward. His father is not with him this time because by now he has formed his own ideas about the world and drawn his own harsh, clear-cut conclusions. Just as society’s behaviors dictate this young man is rude, loud, disrespectful to the girls in the group, and dismissive to the adults in the place. People glare and are disturbed by his behavior. I watch the woman who seems most annoyed by this get up and leave. In her annoyance she is rude to the waitress and I wonder if she realizes the role she has played in shaping this boy into who he is. As the annoyed woman storms out I shift my focus to another little one, a girl of about six. Not only did she see the woman’s rudeness, but now the loud young man has caught her attention. Her mother is busy at the counter and seems unaware of the classroom her daughter is in or the lessons that she is learning. She too is quietly observing, watching as the young man talks down to and torments some teenage girls; another stamp left on an impressionable young mind. It’s so easy to see the cycles so, why can’t we stop them? It’s time for someone to put their foot in the revolving door. We need to be careful how we handle one another all the time because there are people in training as we speak. The same people that we will expect to run this world right. The people that we will expect to clean up the messes we leave behind and care for us. Next time you’re shifting through your day take note of the little learners all around you. What do we want to teach them? Remember that a good disposition and treatment of others can run through the chain just as quickly as the bad.