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I constantly hear (and read) people's pessimistic thoughts on the state of the world. Folks love to mention how horrible the economy is, and how everyone is poor, depressed and likely to slaughter their family then off themselves if they lose their job. Those who are frequent church-goers have probably heard someone say that the tsunamis and hurricanes that nature's been serving us, along with world wars and blah blah blah are signs of the end of days. Even commercials feel the need to remind us of the "troubling times" we supposedly live in. I agree that sometimes, in some places, things are bad. Monumentally bad. Certain people have it so bad that it makes me thankful everyday that I happened to be born into the family i'm in and into this country. But when I hear about all the unfortunate events of today, I can't help but see all the blessings that many people are receiving. In 2010, 552,600 business were started. In the same year, Bill Gates' net worth was 53 billion dollars, and as of today, Oprah Winfrey makes about $2,000 per minute. People are thriving in this so-called "bad economy." Not everyone is, but when has a whole country ever been financially well-off? It's all about what you make of the situation, isn't it? And regarding tsunamis, hurricanes, and other natural disasters: hasn't this stuff been occurring for centuries? According to nctr.pmel.noaa.gov, natural disasters have been happening for a long while:
There is geological evidence that large tsunamis have occurred thousands of years ago. In terms of the earliest tsunami in the historical record, a volcano erupted on Santorini Island, Greece and created a large tsunami. The years...for this event are 1628 BC and 1410 BC. This tsunami is thought to have been so large that it destroyed an entire civilization. The Chinese and Japanese [also] have a long history of recording tsunamis.
I wonder if the Greeks or the Chinese saw those natural occurrences as signs of the apocalypse. Often times, I think about African slaves. They were brutally taken from their continent, separated from their families, forced to work for free, and beaten. I wonder if they were walking around saying "lord, we're living in our last days." If there was any time in history that i'm aware of when folks should have been questioning the future of humanity, I think it should have been then. And as for wars, any history class will show that the slaughtering of humans in battle has been going on for ages.
Today, we have technology that allows us to communicate with anyone in the world, transportation that enables us to visit anywhere in the shortest amount of time than ever before, and microwaves that can cook dinner within minutes. On top of that, the sun still rises every morning, and we are still provided with plenty of oxygen to breath. Is life really that bad? How about we do ourselves and the world a favor and learn to focus on the good things?
I don't feel like citing this stuff correctly :)
Business info: www.sba.gov/advo/stats/sbfaq.pdf
Bill Grates info: www.fastonlinemoneycoach.com/how-much-money-does-bill-gates-make- give-to-charity/
Oprah info: http://www.salary-money.com/oprah--salary-223000000.php
Tsunami info: nctr.pmel.noaa.gov
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