Filters

To begin with this topic I want to make something clear, I don’t meant to offend anybody with my beliefs or with what I write. My intention is that you reflect upon it while you are reading and if you don’t feel like leaving a comment is ok then.

Having stated that, my idea for today’s post is to tell you about a situation that I underwent a few days ago. I was revising my facebook account and I come across a very disturbing post (it was disturbing for me at least) where someone explained about a 6 year-old boy that wanted to be a girl and that his mother had allowed a surgery in order for the boy to become a girl. This person not only explained the situation but also sentenced the mother by insulting her and calling her names that I won’t mention here. The post was really aggressive because it also made mention of God and how it was a sin to go against the nature imposed by God. “Pepita” (this is how I call this person) claimed that it was written in the bible that that was an aberration and even more, if someone would be willing to allow her children to do that, that person deserved to die. o.O

I felt quite irritated when I read that and I needed to write something back to that person so, I used the most polite words I could find and I explained to her that although she didn’t agree with the mother’s decision  she should not use such  hard lines to show it. My intention was to make her realize that she was promoting fury and that she also could hurt someone else’s feeling with her words.

But it was not only her who used to write very aggressive posts, is many other people who have no “filter” in their mouths, or in this case, in their writings. We all have our opinion and it is ok that we express them. Let’s just be careful with how we say things since we ARE writing for the rest if we make it public like in facebook.

Good news/Bad news

How many times we have woken up in the morning and turn on the tv to watch the news while we are preparing breakfast but all you see on tv is bad news! Every day there is a new incident on the streets, strikes, bad decisions taken by the government, many catastrophes happening around the world or people involved in an accident. So every day you think “isn’t there any good news in any of the channels that cheer me up in the morning?” and when the answer is not you feel frustrated.

But yes, exceptions exist. Every once in a while there is a good news: improvements for the city, someone winning a humanitarian prize (and I cannot think of any other example, I haven’t seen many good new lately :/).

Now, let’s get a little pessimistic. What happens when good news are not entirely good. For example, when a police investigation is being carried out and every step of it appears on tv. Let’s analyze this: a campaign against child sex exploitation on internet developed a software, a computer-generated 10-year-old girl in order to catch paedophiles. The sources revealed to the reporters that this “little girl” was a Philippine girl called Sweetie and that by using her they had been able to catch one thousand paedophiles and that they will continue with their work.

My questions in relation to this are: if the project was really successful why would you risk it by making it public. Don’t they know that paedophiles also watch news? Won’t they be aware about Sweetie now?

Another example would be a piece on news where a building got burnt but luckily nobody was injured and we tend to think “Wow! What a good piece of news”. But think twice. Is it really good news that a building got burnt? Do we need bad events that turn out good in the end in order for them to be good news?

I consider that although we take for granted that some news are good news, sometimes we have to take a look at the biggest panorama.

Motivation!

Let me start this post with a personal story

December 2006. High school was finishing for me and I had my graduation party coming. My classmates and I were so worried about it. We wanted so badly everything to be perfect. It was going to be our last night together, quite an important event. Our thoughts were entirely on that. When the party finally passed and we celebrated also Christmas and New Year ’s Eve I realized that it was already January, even worst, that I only had two months left to decide what I wanted to study, what I wanted to be in life! Nothing inspired me.

Talking about it with my dad one very hot afternoon he suggested that I should try a cooking course since I had always loved cooking. So I did it. Nevertheless, I never felt motivated enough as to truly believe that I could be a chef one day, somehow I could not forthsee that in my future, so I quitted.

December 2007. I found myself in the same position that I was at the beginning of that year, not knowing what to do with my life. The days were passing so fast and I was overwhelmed by the idea that I was never going to find my course in life. But my mom spoke this time. She suggested that I should try learning English. Certainly, I had always loved cooking but I didn’t have great expectations as regards it. So my mom remembered me how good I was in English at school and the times I used to teach my classmates or my sisters the language. In any case, the two of us had a very long talk about that one day and the words that she dedicated to me at were really motivating. She said that no matter what I chose to study I should never stop studying. She said she wanted me to be someone in life, not like her who never had the opportunity to finish school (I never thought she was nobody for not studying but she felt like that). Thanks to her I am where I am now and already teaching!

Long story for an introduction, but it was not my intention to use it as an introduction since I am sure that while you were reading you could think of someone or maybe something that motivated you in any aspect of your life. And if the story was not enough I want you to take a look at the next pictures and reflect upon them.

These are quite inspiring people but... Despise their restrictions, what motivated them to go on with their lives as normal as possible?

Now tell me, what or who motivates you?