When I was a child, complaining of unfixable injustice, my dad would joke, "Why don't you just tell the world to stop so you can get off?" We would all laugh because we knew we could not stop the world, like we could stop a car.
In the last quarter of this year, young children were killed by a madman, women burned to death in a clothing factory, floods ruined lives, children were killed by a mine, an alleged war criminal was found not guilty, and a dead TV star was accused of molesting teenagers during a twenty year period.
I could not stop any of these things from happening. People who believe the world is coming to an end are really saying, "I want the world to stop so I can get off."
The world is not going to end. So we must all do the best we can to live our lives well, and to help other people as best we can.
May I suggest a New Year's resolution to do your best, every day, to make the world a better place.
An article in the defunct Whole Earth Magazine discussed a decision matrix. It was laid out on a square divided into four quadrants. The quadrants were:
I WIN, you WIN.
I WIN, you LOSE.
I LOSE, you WIN.
I LOSE, you LOSE.
The article said that too many people believe that a decision where BOTH people WIN was unacceptable because they believe they really WIN only if the other person LOST.
Ever since I read that article, I have tried to find I WIN, you WIN solutions.
It is surprising how often I can find WIN - WIN solutions.
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