Poet William Butler Yeats wrote: “Things fall apart; the center cannot hold; / Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, / The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere / The ceremony of innocence is drowned; / The best lack all conviction, while the worst / Are full of passionate intensity.”
Sounds like a description of our times although Mr. Yeats published this in 1920. Students of history know that this was just after World War One. World War Two was still to come along with all the other wars since then.
The world is a mess and I have to remind myself to consider history. It’s been a mess – for a long time. It’s been a mess – always?
What does my silly title mean? Comp stands for compromise. Coop stands for cooperate. Grump stands for grumpy. Grate stands for grateful.
There are a lot of grumpy people on the planet. All they do is complain. Yes, there’s a lot of stuff to complain about and be angry about. But complaint without ideas for peaceful action – for fixing things is pointless. Saw a piece on the news today that a whole bunch of Americans think violence will occur during the upcoming election. There are folks out there whose morals and ethics tell them that sending death threats to people they disagree with is OK.
My reaction: disbelief. For a long time now I’ve been sending what I hope are telepathic messages being received by someone from the planet Vulcan (home of Mr. Spock) to come and get me. Please!
When I see a problem, I want to solve it. If all someone wants to do is complain or react with violence – no thank you. Count me out.
That’s where Comp, Coop and Grate come in.
We ought to be grateful for a lot of things. We take too many things for granted. Next time you flip a switch to turn on a light, think about the infrastructure that makes that possible. Next time you turn on a faucet, think about the infrastructure that makes that possible. Think about the people who produce our food. Imagine life with no electricity and no clean, running water. Imagine starving. There are folks on this planet – today – who live like that. Do you want to go there? Or should you give a quiet thought of thanks to the folks who make those things we too often take for granted possible.
We solve problems with peaceful cooperation based on compromise. You cannot have everything that you want. You must give in order to get. Recently an elected representative, who shall remain nameless, caused chaos in the U.S. Congress because another representative had cooperated and compromised with people of differing views. I want to fire this nasty, self-centered, uncooperative (let’s be blunt here) causer-of-chaos jerk and all who behave the way he behaved. These people are not doing the job they were hired to do. In any other business, they would be long gone. That they are not – and are supported by many Americans – is insanity.
As you movie through the coming days, what will you do? Who will you be? Will you be an angry grump? Or will you be a grateful, cooperative, compromiser? Count me in as a person who wants to solve problems peacefully. I want to Coop and Comp. I don’t want to be part of the problem. I want to be part of the solution.
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