What Does It Take To Be Kind To Each Other?

A Whole Lot Of Love

In this day of racial tension

What once was the good is now the bad

Where it is easy to pick a fight

Then make a friend

Will, there be no end?

I don't think it is all about justice

Right and wrong

I think it is much deeper than that

Where we forgot who we are

We are people who have made mistakes

We will continue to make more mistakes in the future

Not the same ones over and over

There will still be faults in our ways

Instead of picking us apart

Like a lab rat in a science class

Aren't we so much more?

More complicated than the eye can see

We have a whole history

Not just this day in question

I can't wake up every day

With anger and fear

I won't live in hate and distrust

My first words will never be

I don't care

I grew up in a world that had meaning

Where I can always remember not liking all the teachers that taught me

I didn't have any choice

I was told they know better

Did they really know more than me?

It made me try harder to fix what problems I faced

I will tell you

Many things didn't change

Soon I not only moved on

Over time I forgot

What I did say to myself a zillion times

I will not be like them

I will be like the teachers I respected and loved

Did I go on to become a teacher

No, far from it

I didn't fight the system

Even if the system was broken

My life like so many other students

Was a struggle and a learning process

It was a different time

Time will never be the same

It wasn't for me and won't be for you either

We have to learn to make peace

Not just with our neighbors and friends

Starting with our own families

Even if they are people we don't agree with or understand

We don't try to change them

To our way of thinking

Which has to be the right and only way

Instead, we can try to make them see a different view

One we can both see some truth and some right

Bringing about a new light

To a dark period of our life

So we can find a way to move past this time of trouble

Some people may think it is a burden

A cause or a change that has to happen

Could it be an eye opener

To the news we don't want to hear

There might be some truth hidden

It brings me back when I was a young boy

I didn't like dentists

I went because my parents made me

They brought me

Not because what I wanted

What I needed

I have to keep my teeth healthy

If I don't go to the dentist because of fear

Of what other dentists have done

I would have bigger problems in the future

They will not just go away

I still go to this very day

Nobody cares if I go or not

There is no one forcing me

I realize I have to make a choice

It is a better choice

Over time not just my teeth but for my whole health

I am be wiser because of my actions

It comes with a cost

Nobody is here to pick up the bill

You could say I was responsible for my teeth condition

There are many ways to see that

Blame it on bad dentists

Who didn't know any better

Did I forget to brush and floss often enough?

Yes, I wasn't the best

Could it be hereditary?

So do I blame my mother and father?

Could I blame it on science

We just didn't know enough

It took better methods and fluoride

To help children of today

Have better teeth

Once again people will disagree and some argue

Is fluoride really a good idea?

Then years ago my family didn't have the money?

While other children I knew did

Do I curse all my life?

Do I blame other people for the way things were?

I have and had no choice but learned to move forward

Every day I live with my aches and pains

Are they the biggest and worst things in the world?

Far from it

They are my physical and emotional baggage

That I can not just forget

Sweep under the rug like it never happened

I lift my head up high

Looking for other people not things that make my life better

Things only give me a temporary happiness

That fade as fast as the sun sets

Is that the only problem in the world?

Not a chance

Every day I can find a new problem

One that existed long before I saw it

From the common flu

To love that is as tricky and so complicated

Work problems that come out of nowhere

My own health and welfare

The uncertain future

My families problems that don't disappear

Like yesterdays supper

They show up in tomorrows lunch as leftovers

Even when they are gone

They still exist next week

We have to eat again

We can not go without eating

It will be ongoing

The list is endless

I have found one solution

To get through all of this

To focus on what I have

Not what I don't and have missed

Like the tissue that I should of kept

When I first had a sniffle

Knowing there might be another sniffle to follow

I go without and later wish I had

Sometimes I am better prepared

Then out of the blue

Something better happened

I found a tissue box where I least expected it

At the dentist of all places

So some good things can come from some bad places

I felt better even if it was only temporary

So I am in search of friendship

Not just one that goes away when the sun retreats

That may not keep me warm

On the coldest winter days

Instead gives me great joy and comfort

When I turn up the heat

I will always look for a new and better way

Even though I may try the old way often

Some days I am more disappointed than happy

Then to my surprise

Through all the problems and catastrophy's

I get what I have been always looking for

Those days that no one thought existed

That make me

The happiest I have ever been