OPINION
September 2020
5
The World is Waiting
BY PATRICIA SANDERS
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn wrote, the line between good and evil runs through every human heart. There can be a natural tendency to want to say a person is good or bad, because that would make life so much easier. We could label a person and be done with it (but then become very confused when sometimes they act differently). In reality, no one is purely good and no one is purely bad. A murderer can pick up litter, and even the finest people have their failings. We have to see and accept the patchwork of positives and negatives in ourselves and in others. By accept, I mean understand it’s there and not pretend otherwise. Accepting the truth is always the first step to making things better. And that, I feel, is where you can draw a line between categories of people. There are people who, regardless of their current state, are sincerely trying to be better – and people who aren’t. For those who are, it’s an uphill battle and lots of two-steps-forward-one-step-back. It takes patience and resolve, and time, and often prayer, to make visible progress. But the sincere desire is there, and that makes all the difference: the desire to be a better person, and thereby contribute to a better world. For those who don’t have that desire? In my experience, their lives just keep spiraling downward. Maybe not in outward ways, because these people can often prosper
materially and socially, if their tactics are good enough. But in all the ways that matter, their lives get worse and worse – and so do the lives of people who choose to be around them. These people bring down the whole world in their vicinity. The fact is – and I believe this – most people are, in their heart, better than they outwardly seem. That’s because most people have positive impulses, or at least a distant yearning for goodness – but when it comes to taking action, they modify their behavior to match what they see around them. Which means, usually, for the worse. A teacher once told me that if only people would act on those inner positive impulses instead of reducing their behavior to match what they see around them, the world would be such a better place. In other words, we have to stop waiting for the world to get better. The world is waiting for us. Patricia Sanders lived in Globe from 2004 to 2008 and at Reevis Mountain School, in the Tonto National Forest, from 2008 to 2014. She has been a writer and editor for GMT since 2015. She is currently traveling long-term and researching a book on dance. You can follow her writing on the website medium.com, under the pen name SK Camille.
PATRICIA SANDERS
Last week my 12-year-old niece, Phoebe, happened to come in the room while the adults were watching Lovecraft Country. After watching one of the scenes of violent racism, she said, “People are so mean.” The way she said it, you could tell she was talking not just about the people on screen but people in general. While the show went on, I said, “Some of them are.” I hated to think Phoebe was beginning to become cynical – to believe the whole world was mean. Because I used to feel that way, myself. There wasn’t a lot of genuine love and kindness in my environment when I was growing up. There was lots of “humanitarian” activity on the part of grownups, that was supposed to make them look good. But even then, I could see that their altruism came from an arrogant desire for prestige, a facade, not a sincere impulse toward benevolence. So I grew up not expecting much good from people – and even being skeptical and distrustful of what good I did experience. I think American culture encourages this cynicism. We’re a deeply capitalistic culture, despite our Christian influence. After all, Christopher Columbus stumbled upon the American continent while he was exploring trade routes. And the first English settlers came to America looking for gold and silver and other trade products. The Pilgrims came later. Capitalism has made Americans self-reliant and trade-oriented. It’s made us see one another, and ourselves, as consumers and workers, competitors and investors – forgetting that we’re sisters and brothers first. I would say capitalism has made us unkind and even, often, inhumane. I saw the difference when I went to Southeast Asia and witnessed the everyday generosity and kind concern among people there. One time, I was standing next to an intersection with the sun in my eyes and a Thai woman sitting in the back of a truck insisted on giving me the hat off her head. Another time, I needed to get to an ATM half a mile away, on foot, and the Thai man I’d asked for directions, a complete stranger, offered to let me borrow his scooter. Another time, I was asking for directions (again) in Vietnam, and the people I asked not only told me where it was but drew a map. Then, when I started off, the woman took me by the elbow and walked me to the sidewalk to make sure I got started in the right direction. These are anecdotal evidence, but they do illustrate the unselfishness I came to expect from Southeast Asians. When I returned to the United States and needed directions, people I started to approach on the street would turn away or point at their earbuds and shake their head. I had to re-adjust my expectations. It was sad. Of course, individuals are individual. I’ve met unkind people in Asia and wonderful people in the United States. I’m talking about cultures. What’s sad is that generosity and compassion, in the United States, seem to be countercultural acts. I kept thinking about what Phoebe had said, still concerned for what she might be beginning to believe about the world, and people. Finally, at the supper table a day or two later, I said what I could, which is all I know: Yes, people can be mean. They can also be amazingly kind and wonderful. But you can’t categorize people as either good or bad. We’re all part both. As the Soviet dissident
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