There are asshole in the world…don’t be one of them.

I have been waiting for the book “Apocalypse Never” for several months. After listening to the author, Michael Schellenberger on a podcast, I immediately went onto Amazon and tried to order the book. It was completely sold out with a restock date “unknown.” Big bummer. I went to our local bookstore and checked all the bookstores in airports while traveling with no luck. I checked back on Amazon regularly and finally found it from a seller, although at a premium price rather than retail. I’m really anxious to read this book so I bought it anyway.

Last week my husband let me know he received an Amazon delivery notification that the book had supposedly been delivered. I didn’t receive it. The tracking details indicated it had been delivered at 6:57pm and left on my front porch. We thought back to where we were on that date and time and remembered we were at our daughter’s winter orchestra concert. Someone had stolen it off of our porch! And the worst part is this stupid mother fucker, with such poor moral character as to steal, probably doesn’t even read and probably threw it away!

Side note: you can bet my first reaction when someone pisses me off like this, is I call them a few choice names, assume they are of low intelligence and vow to beat their ass if I see them. Ha! All the reasons it is important for me to go for a walk, and let my emotions settle before speaking when things go sideways with someone;)

I have been irritated by this event for the past few days. The good news is the book is now back in stock so I was able to order another copy. But I was still out the $42.00 and more disappointingly, the first book was probably sitting in a trash can. A place no book should ever be found.

When I was out for a walk yesterday I came across a house with a book box out front (pictured below). As I walked over to read the inscription and take a peek at what sort of books were inside, I had a profound thought. What if I turned the dishonest act of someone else into another way for me to spread the truth? Maybe I could create a “book box” of sorts at my house, but instead of filling it with random books, I fill it with materials to encourage others to live a better life. The endless wheels of creativity in my head started cranking and I couldn’t get home soon enough to write it all down so I could implement it.

On my walk back to my house, I pondered this scenario and how to extrapolate it out into a focus for the coming year. Encouraging others to be the exact opposite of what they despise in the world just might be a way to solve a lot of what is going wrong in the world right now. And at the very least, help people be a slightly better version of themselves. This is good stuff.

Instead of complaining about what we don’t like, what if we consciously acted out the opposite? From everyday interactions, out into our communities and then out into the world at large, we become the very opposite of what we hate.

Instead of me calling someone a stupid, non-reading mother fucker, I use my energy to reduce the number of these characters in the world. This would serve me as well as them and in turn, do a service to the world.

The things I dislike in the behavior of others is pretty much limitless so I have my work cut out for me but I’m excited about this new outlook. I’m going to create some pretty fantastic projects in the coming year.

Let’s face it, we could all do with a few less assholes in the world. We should start with ourselves.