Unnoticed
If you read a newspaper, you see it. If you watch any news on TV, local, national, world, it doesn’t matter, you hear it. And more often than not, in the conversations you have with others, you’re talking about it. What is it? It, is what is wrong, evil, troublesome, dangerous, grim in our world, our country, our community and our lives. Why don’t more of the good things get any hype?
I was doing some looking online, in search of worthwhile reading, and came across an author that I wasn’t familiar with, Isaac Asimov. Asimov, a Russian born transplant to the U.S. is considered one of the greatest science fiction writers of the 20th century. He was also a professor of biochemistry. His The Foundation stories beat out J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings in 1966 to win a Hugo Award for Best All-Time Series. Why I mention Asimov here, other than you “Rings” fans might want to check him out, is this simple quote I found that he made;
“The viciousness and wrongs of life stick out very plainly but there is a great deal of goodness, kindness, and day-to-day decency that goes unnoticed.”
This is so, so true. But why? Why are newspapers and TV broadcasts filled with disaster, corruption and incompetence? Why, when you read the news, sometimes it can feel like the only things reported are terrible, depressing events? Why does the media concentrate on the bad things in life, rather than the good?
Why? Because we humans have developed a “negativity bias”, the term for our collective hunger to hear and remember bad news. We unconsciously click the news feed tab, buy the tabloid, or turn on the news channel to learn the bad news. Guess what, the media organizations know this. Since this is what we are drawn to, this is what they are going to provide. The more people that click, buy or tune in, the more advertising space they can sell and the more money they can make. They aren’t going to go away from this format.
We are probably never going to change what is reported, or broadcast, by major news outlets. So, what can we do to try to mitigate the information we receive that, unbeknownst to us, brings us down? We can start by consciously acknowledging and promoting the “the goodness, kindness and day-to-day decency that gets unnoticed.”
It doesn’t take much. Little things will lead to bigger things, which will eventually lead to changes in thoughts, attitudes and habits. It could be something as simple as genuinely thanking a store employee that helps you, even though it’s their job. That employee might not be a person who is naturally outgoing or helpful, but if they feel their actions are noticed and appreciated they may begin to help more freely. Once they start to notice the appreciation, they will spread the feeling. They will look for opportunities to be helpful, kind and good. They may teach their child to hold open a door for someone, or say please and thank you. They will also become more willing to show appreciation themselves. It all starts as simple as this.
Most people aren’t kind or helpful because they are trying to garner recognition. But, when a good deed, or act of kindness, is acknowledged, it makes them feel good. It creates a smile. Good vibes are exchanged. It’s positive. All because you noticed.
Thank you for reading this article. I gave one little example. Now, you figure out what you can do toward slowing the constant barrage of negativity we all see, read, hear, every day.
Getting Back On (the) Track
Many of you reading this have known me for most of my life. For those of you who have come to know me more recently, I will give a little background, which will hopefully help it all come together and make sense by the end.
From the time I was around 12 years old I was a fairly good distance runner. As a competitor I had a respectable career at Shakamak High School, then competing for the U.S. Army in Europe and eventually at Eastern Illinois University. After college I continued to run, and compete periodically, while coaching high school cross country and track.
In my mid-30’s, after around 25 years, running became tougher, and less important. I was starting to get injured more frequently, probably due to the thousands of miles of pounding on my legs, and the lack of consistency in my training. I was still coaching, but my running had diminished to sporadic and only during my teams seasons. With my experience I should have known that I can’t take 4 months off and start again at the level where I left off. I’m a little hard headed. As things go, I eventually gave it up. I was no longer coaching, and being self-employed where it seems the work day never ends, running fell way down the priority list.
After about 4 years I was getting a little antsy. Not that I was sedentary, but my everyday activity wasn’t challenging. I never took my running as a quest for fitness. I ran because I was good at it. I was a competitor, against myself. I needed to get back into something. That’s when I found the bike.
At the time my friend, Shad Cox, was running a bike shop. We had often had talks about running, riding and adventure stuff. I was talking to him about wanting to get active again when he started pushing me toward getting a bike. I hadn’t really ridden a bike since I was a kid. Shad talked about these long rides he would go on, to other towns, that took most of the day. That all seemed unreal. As a runner, I ran for an hour, to train to get faster, not to go somewhere.
September of 2011 I bought a nice road bike, got it fitted to me and began to ride. I knew nothing. It was probably 6 months before I really knew what good the small ring gear was. I went at it like running. Every ride was a training ride, with the aim of getting faster. There was no coasting, only pushing the pedals from the time I got on the bike until I got off. By the spring of 2012 I was getting faster and into pretty good shape, so I thought. Now, to keep up the motivation, I needed a goal. Something to shoot for. And what could be better than the RAIN (Ride Across Indiana) ride. 160 miles, one day, one way, Terre Haute to Richmond in the middle of July. Sure! Why not?
Continued in next month’s Newsletter