I am exhausted by all the negativity being piped into our homes every day. I am exhausted to the point that I have completely tuned out. I am fed up with opinions being pushed as fact and insulted that they think we can't tell the difference. So I have tuned out. I am no longer watching any television except for that which comes without commentary and includes actors. My most current streaming was Ozark, which I highly recommend, and we just started Stranger Thimgs, which is proving to be quite a treat. That's about the extent of my immersion in television content. It's working, I feel less exhausted. I am sleeping better. I am less anxious. If the apocolypse comes now, I'll be one of the last to know and I think that suits me just fine. I hope that gives you an idea of where I've been.
I say that to tell you this, last weekend I attended the Dekalb County Public Library Inagural Autho Expo and I was amazed at how much love, respect, creativity, and general awesomeness was contained in that one building. During a time when we are being led to believe that there is nothing but division in our country, I in my daily life see no signs of such. It's not that I live out in the boondocks and never see another person. I live in the Atlanta metropolitan area. Surely this diverse culture would be a hotbed for the division. Maybe there are pockets of animus, and I just don't know because I'm not part of it. But what I found at last weekend's event was acceptance, respect, love, kindness and above all else, inspiration. These people inspired me to believe that the world is really not the hateful and horrid place the 24x7 opinion outlets would have you believe. People who inspire a sense of being part of something bigger.
Not everybody I met last week had a book that required a book review. There were many people who had written childrens books, self help guide books and health and wellness books. Yet, I couldn't keep these amazing people from popping into my mind and I didn't really understand why. The other night, while I was sleeping, I understood. They inspire positivity. That, in this time of extreme negativism, should be celebrated. I want to celebrate it. I want to put some positive into the world and maybe, in my very small way, counterbalance some of the negative.
Keep an eye out, sometime in the next week, you'll see a post from me with the tag line People Who Inspire. It's not all going to be writers, it's going to be people from all walks of life that I encounter who are doing good in the world. People who are looking for ways to help other people feel better, succeed more, thrive.