Good Or Bad? Or Is The Whole World Going To The Dogs?

“Every thing is going to the dogs these days; it looks like the end of the world.”

I hear these things so often lately that I’d like to tell how I feel about these days. I believe that we are living in the best time ever in my 72 years! I find people wonderful, good, helpful, kind, loving and really thinking about things.

We are products of what we seek. If we seek the good, we find it; if we choose health, we find it; if we choose morality, we find it. Our choices make us who we are. Stories about goodness are not the top stories of the day. News of the day is about the out-of-the-ordinary. If being good or loving was unusual, then it would be news of the day.

I believe that we are all basically good, but many have been misinformed or have been hurt by someone who was misinformed. I see waves of information that can make us better and help us to live better.

Take food, for instance. There are healthy and unhealthy foods. Years ago only a few knew what caused heart problems and few knew that smoking was harmful. Now, we can read and discover the best foods to eat to be healthy and vibrant.

Today there are great ways to raise children that we didn’t know about. When we were up in Canada visiting our daughter recently, our 5-year-old granddaughter was acting up. My daughter told her: “You go sit down until you are over this.” The child did. And she got over it. We never thought of looking kids in the eyes and talking with them. When I was naughty I got spanked, and I didn’t get over it for a long time.

We have more opportunities to have fun, more places to travel. Not many used to travel, because people didn’t have the money or the transportation.

We have more knowledge than we used to. I’ve had a reading disorder all my life and didn’t know it until a few years back, when I found a way to correct it. I’ve always considered myself not very smart because of this and I didn’t like to read. This has been quite a loss for me. I recently read an article that told of a teacher in Washington who learned to use transparencies of different colors to improve some childrens’ reading ability. She placed the transparencies on the pages while they read.

The words, which had blurred and “swam off the page,” became clear for them. That’s what helped me to read, but I didn’t learn about it until I was in my 60s. Who knows, maybe a lot of our delinquent kids have reading problems. Who knows, if they had discovered this reading disorder when I was a child maybe I would have read more and known more and not considered myself stupid.

We are more aware of environment now. We used to just throw things away. I remember the garbage dump near our house had everything in it; no one recycled. Today we know there is no “away.”

I used to want to be like everyone else. Now I realize we need to be more diverse. Bread used to be the staff of life, now it is diversity and communion with others. I don’t miss the good old days, because I’m enjoying too much living in the good new days.

MEMO: Editors note: Is the world a better place to live than it once was? Or much worse? Two essay writers tackle the question. Now, we pose this challenge to the seniors in our community: Read theses essays and weigh in with your opinion. Is the world now better or worse? You decide.

Let us know The world: Better or Worse? Write your comments to Rebecca Nappi, The Perspective Page, The Spokesman-Review, P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, Wash. 99210-1615. Or call Cityline from a Touch-Tone phone, 458-8800 in Spokane, 765-8811 in North Idaho. Punch in category 9882. Spell your first and last names, leave a daytime number, your age, and a brief message. Thank you.

Bob Van Thiel, 72, is a community volunteer and retired mail carrier.

For the opposing view, see the story under the headline “Good or Bad? Is everything coming up roses?”