May 29: 5 Good Things

The world isn't a great place right now. Minneapolis is in turmoil, the global population is being dominated by a virus, and 45 just keeps coming up with new ways to embarrass and distress the country he’s supposed to represent. Usually when I make a list of good things, I either do it to highlight how many good things there are in life at that specific time. When I’ve done it before, I would include ten good things. Today, I feel lucky I was able to come up with five. 

1. My students are aware of what’s happening in the Cities. There was a fair amount of discussion about the riots on our Google Classroom this morning as several people took turns expressing how they felt about it. Most of them were scared. I don’t like the idea that they have to accept that things like this are a part of the world they live in, but I’m happy they’re aware of it. I believe this will help them to be more involved citizens as they grow up.

2. My school has a very diverse population. While there are unavoidable hints and moments when racism comes out in the open and has to be dealt with, most of the kids acknowledge each other as individuals first instead of members of any pre-defined group. I believe attending school in such an environment will help them learn tolerance. 

3. Our state has a governor with a wealth of useful life experience that helps him when it comes time to make difficult decisions. He is also someone who doesn’t shy away from the responsibility that falls to him when the time comes for him to make those decisions. 

4. This isn’t getting anywhere near the media coverage as the destruction, but there are so many people in affected communities taking it upon themselves to begin cleaning up after the ones who raged and burned and leveled tragic amounts of the city. There are people in the world making the effort to begin the process of bringing things back. These people are just as important as the elected leaders, if not more important, when it will come to healing. 

All right. I’m going to stop there. Things are pretty bad, and despite what points of view I try to look at things from, today I think I’m lucky I was able to come up with four. Maybe that should lead me into a fifth one: 

5. Even if things are bad right now, and even if our culture and society are horribly and combatively splintered, there’s always hope that things might someday be better for everyone.