What in the World?

My elderly parents used to watch the news and shake their heads, saying, “What is the world coming to?” 

Now that I’m approaching retirement, I find myself saying the same thing more often: “What on earth is going on in the world today?” My friends and I laugh about our reactions and the fact that we sound old, but I suppose this is a natural part of aging and the sense that change is coming faster than we can handle. 

Are there more tragic events happening nowadays, or is it just that the world has become a smaller place and we hear about them more often? 

The last few weeks have certainly been difficult for Canadians. First, the Humboldt bus crash on April 6 shocked the country with the loss of 16 lives and 13 injured. Then last week’s van attack in Toronto killed 10 people and injured many more. I was personally horrified by the video of 41-year-old Sebastian Woodroffe from BC, who was dragged along a ditch in Peru before being lynched.

We hear about so many terrible tragedies and suffering all around the globe. It’s difficult not to dwell on these events and let it get you down. I believe we need to maintain a healthy balance between compassion and despair when we see these events unfold. We can grieve, but we don’t want to lose hope. We also need to take care of ourselves so that we can care for and encourage others who are going through their own losses and tragedies—especially those in the healthcare industry, who deal with loss and tragedy frequently.

It’s important to practice self care—eating healthy, getting enough sleep, exercising, and doing things that bring you joy. One of my friends listens to the Vinyl Café when she feels overwhelmed and stressed, and this helps recalibrate her outlook. Some of us like to go for long walks in beautiful scenery to feel refreshed. There are probably as many ways to get refocussed and reenergized as there are people.

A quote by Fred Rogers makes the rounds on social media from time to time, and it’s worth sharing: “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’”

This is so true, and I saw this play out on the news last week as people immediately responded to help the injured and dying in the Toronto van attack.

It’s not always obvious what is happening in the lives of the people we rub shoulders with in our workplaces every day, but a bit of kindness goes a long way toward bringing peace and calm into everyone’s lives.

Let’s be helpers in both the large events and the quieter personal tragedies that surround us. It will go a long way toward making the world a less scary place for everyone.