Time to focus on the good

There is so much good in the world. I have been working on turning my attention to all that is good in my life and all the amazing, wonderful things going on all around me. Yes, there are major concerns and challenges on the planet, and without question there is a shift in consciousness.

My intention is to place my attention on solutions, on making the things that appear to be less than ideal, better for all concerned. I don’t want to sound like a Pollyanna or like I live in denial, because I do not. But – I am starting to realize that there is too much of our lives spent dwelling in the non-stop coverage of Michael Jackson’s death and his doctor’s culpability. We will now be buried in the “news” of the nightmare at Penn State. And the question for me is, “How is this serving me – or anybody, for that matter?”

The subjects of medical malpractice and child sexual abuse are not new and they are not isolated in these cases that the media seems to endlessly update. They are global social issues, that need our attention, but not as though we were gazing through some peephole and expressing our collective outrage and disgust. The headline instances I refer to may serve to call our attention to the larger picture, but beyond that the coverage borders on some kind of voyeurism. Perhaps it is time to look beyond the news and seek real answers and solutions to the questions and challenges life presents. The trial and sentencing of the guilty does not represent justice, it simply ends a sordid tale with the punishment meted out by the system.

Justice is recognizing that the broader issues are in need of new ideas and new participation. While our mortality can be defined by huge percentages of deaths being attributable, directly or indirectly, to mis-applied medicine or medical care and while children are being sexually abused all over the globe, even exploited as slaves and workers in the sex trade, the trial of one miscreant doctor or the indictment of one suspected pedophile, doesn’t even scratch the surface.

If we are to conquer these challenges and the many more that trouble people in every country, it is time to put our collective consciousness and efforts to better use than to be the media’s peeping Toms.