I was visited…
…by a very nice couple on Christmas Eve. I had stepped outside in the front of my house to begin smoking some Salmon as I enjoy doing from time to time in our peaceful middle-income neighborhood. We are not religious but celebrate Christmas in a spirit of gift-giving and family togetherness. There is no Christ in our Christmas.
The couple walked up and greeted me warmly. They gave me a pamphlet about the end of the world. I was struck at how nice and happy they were considering the news they were handing me. They were middle-aged and well dressed. The woman asked me if I noticed the terrible events happening across the globe. They mentioned earthquakes and tsunami’s, tornadoes and hurricanes, crime and violence. I said I had noticed.
Then there was an excitement that came over them as they opened the Bible to show me exactly how this was proof of the prophecy written there. Jesus was about to return; what a wonderful time to be alive and witnessing these events.
I asked them why they focused on the negative so much? I told them that things are better than ever – life expectancies are WAY up from what they were even 50 years ago and crime has actually gone down and that while, yes, there are many, many problems we are only more aware of the bad because it happens so infrequently and also because we are good at reporting it.
They seemed a bit surprised at my response. It seems most people agree with them on how bad the world was getting. I couldn’t help but feel like I was giving them the “good news.”
How can it be that such nice people go around to point out and celebrate misery?
