Positivity Tested

After a tragedy like the bombing of the Boston Marathon, many people may question why I even bother taking a positive attitude. Quite frankly, I spent a lot of time questioning myself. All this talk about being positive is great, but where did it really get me? Bad things still happen in the world no matter how rosily tinted my glasses are. So what's the point?

I'd like to give an elaborate and wonderful answer to that question, but unfortunately I don't have one. All I really have is a hunch about why positivity is worth it, but that's good enough for me. This hunch is best illustrated by an example I observed on Facebook shortly after the incident. Several people had been posting photos asking their friends to pray for the victims, the first responders, and the law enforcement officials trying to track down the suspects. A few people, however, went one step further: they dared to ask their friends to pray for the suspects.

In one particular case, a friend of mine posted a photo saying "Pray for Dzhokhar." I thought it was a nice idea. After all, he was human too and he was just a kid our age. But my friend's own family thought differently. They commented on the picture in disbelief, sure he must be joking. They attacked him saying that we should be praying for the victims and their families, not the person who caused all this suffering in the first place.

But he wasn't kidding, and he very eloquently defended himself by saying that prayer for the victims goes without saying. He wasn't suggesting that we pray for Dzhokhar instead of the victims, simply pointing out that we should pray for Dzhokhar in addition to them. This struck me as very interesting. He wasn't really putting a positive spin on the situation. He wasn't suggesting that we pretend nothing bad happened. Yet somehow, just seeing his post, I felt much more positive about the situation just knowing that not everyone was treating it as a chance to be filled with hatred and anger. Some people were willing to take a step back and realize that everyone involved was affected in some way, even the suspects. And rather than throwing stones, some people were extending a hand in kindness and love even when it wasn't the easy thing to do.

I realized that in the end, being positive in this way is the only thing we really can do. Hate and anger don't make the situation any better for anyone. The only thing we really can do is continue to love one another in any way we can.