Peace on Earth, Goodwill to Man

I was looking for a thinking place earlier today. A thinking place is that area where I can stay awhile and do some thinking. My term, my definition.

Saturday is the one day of the week that I usually can do what I like. So yes, it's my unofficial favorite day. I can put extra time at work. Or I can just slow down, park my butt and read a book or do work stuff or dream up of new projects. Which brings us back to me looking for a thinking place late morning of Saturday.

My usual thinking place is a Starbucks branch (Aside: My favorites are the 2 along Jupiter St., 3 within Salcedo Village, 2 within Bonifacio High Street and 1 near White Plains.) I had more month at the end of my money, and I have to look for one where I can stay a long time without shelling out more of my dwindling dough.

I was driving along 5th Street at The Fort on my way to McKinley Hills when I noticed a small crew starting to erect the foundation of the mega-large Christmas Tree in front of Embassy. The season is definitely approaching. I'm not so thrilled at the prospect. Sad to say, by my observation, Christmas has become more of a conditioned state. People celebrate it because it's expected. People give gifts because it's expected. People go through the motion of observing traditions because they are, well, traditions. The whole idea of Peace on Earth and Goodwill to Man is lost except to a precious few.

The world hasn't had a period of peace in a long time. At any point in history, there is always one country at war or embroiled in a conflict. People are generally too wrapped up in their own objectives they do not pay attention to other people. That is not to say that we have become totally bereft of goodness. I still believe that people are still basically good. But even without evil intent, we manage to hurt other people, simply by not thinking of them.

I also believe that this is the reason why being on the road these days is dangerous business. Bilbo Baggins' words are never truer. Of course, when he said that, it was in the spirit of adventure. It's true, nevertheless, in this case.

Accidents happen because we are too centered on ourselves. We ignore road signs, we take rules of the road as suggestion. We refuse to use proper pedestrian lanes and overpasses because they are too inconvenient. We counterflow because we're in a hurry. We go beyond speed limits because we won't be caught anyway. We park our vehicles on the streets because there is no available parking space nearby. I can go on and on and on about this. But the point is this: we didn't do any of those to hurt other people. We just did them for our own benefit. we didn't think about them at all.

This is the same reason the world is in shambles now. Corruption has become too much a part of our lives we cannot even distinguish it anymore. We have politicians all saying the right words while busy filling their pockets. We have people of religion all quoting the Bible while fleecing their own churches. We have business people all promising products and services to benefit mankind while skimping on ingredients, using inferior ones, placating complainers with bribes and just continue their merry money-making way. None of them thought, I'll do this so that people will suffer, so that people will get hurt. And yet...

The very air we breathe has been contaminated by people who never intentionally tried to hurt us. They just never thought of us at all.

So, yeah. Peace on Earth, Goodwill to Man. Let's see if we can mean it.