A Grain of Sand
I hear them all the time,
people complaining about this or that on Facebook, Twitter, in the line at the
store, sitting at Starbucks, everywhere. Everyone has something to complain
about. Is it human nature? I don’t know. I do know this though, whether it be
from my years or my experience. You’re either part of the Problem or your part
of the Solution.
This is a great saying and
one I adopted years ago even though it took me some time to realize “Oh yeah,
you have to put it in action if you’re gonna preach it.”
We stand on a beach and look
at the sand beneath our feet. You can’t readily see one grain of sand, but if
you were to count out 200,000 grains of sand and pile them up, they would now
be noticeable to you. 500,000?, a million? Now your seeing even more of them
and they make a difference in the overall landscape of the beach.
I can not tell you how long
and how many times I have gone into Walmart and by the time I leave, I am so
angry and disgusted with so many aspects of that experience. One day, as I
stood in line with my wife waiting to check out, it finally hit me. Why the
hell am I subjecting myself to these feelings if I truly can not tolerate what
I experience here. From that day forward, I have not stepped foot in that store
again. Is it a matter of principle?
Hell yeah. Do I think that my not shopping there has made any difference in the
way they do business? I’m not so naïve as to believe that I alone can cause so
significant a change but let’s see. What would happen if 200,000 people just
all of a sudden stopped shopping there. 500,000?, a Million?, five million? It
is said that “You have to stand for something or you’ll fall for anything” It’s true and in this country, we all follow
along like so many sheep in a herd. We don’t like it, but will we do anything
about it. I saw on Twitter today where certain colored cheap crappy flip flops
from China cause serious harm to peoples feet. This story has actually been out
for nearly ten years. Shocking I’ve heard many people say, but do they do
anything about it. What if every American simply stopped buying them in
protest. Do you think it might have an effect? Especially if it became
newsworthy?
We’ve heard about their
(China’s) drywall, their dog food, baby items, the list goes on, but do we stop
buying their crap? No. Instead, we complain about it and walk right back
into Walmart or wherever else they sell their crap and eagerly buy more of it.
“You’re either part of the
Problem or you’re part of the solution” applies to so many areas of our lives.
We simply tolerate people who do nothing but complain and bring us down as
opposed to saying “I’m done, I will no longer hang around a person with so much
negativity” or “But I can’t afford to shop elsewhere” or “My vote doesn't matter” (Well, you might actually be right about the last one, but…)
I've said it time after
time, if a united front took a stand against one thing at a time, you would see
dramatic changes take place.
Let’s use a simple example.
Let’s say that you and several other of your friends, neighbors, etc are tired
of paying an exorbitant price for a given object. Letters to the company by you
or others have no effect. They continue to reap the obscene profit they always
have. Now let’s see what would happen if say you were able to start a
grassroots campaign that eventually garnered eight million people to stop
buying this product until the price is adjusted. Don’t you think that those
“upstairs” executives might just come back from their country club lunches and
sit down and ask themselves “How do we stop this tidal wave of dissent” “Hey,
maybe we should lower the price?”
I know, I know, there are
many of you who think I’m naive or nuts to believe this, but what if? What if there really is a “power to the people” as has been suggested. What if those
millions of grains of sand do in fact cause someone to trip or stumble as they
walk along the beach? What if you and ten million other like minded people just
stood up and shouted “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore”
I’m
a writer, so I have a great and vivid imagination, but everyone that exists has
an imagination. Now imagine you actually can be a part of the solution.Help a Writer get published...
https://pubslush.com/books/id/3311 - https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/let-s-publish-a-book--2/x/1496569
