Thoughts of the week

1. Imagine how different the world would be if we spoke words of love to women and taught them to love their bodies, instead of constantly tell them that they are flawed and need to change. If we told them that the things they've been taught to hate about their bodies are beautiful and they're perfect exactly as they are? Wouldn't that be wonderful. That'll never happen though, because women hating themselves is a billion dollar industry.

2. I have hope though, the world is changing. Women are standing up for themselves and taking back their power. Iran is the perfect example, as is the MeToo movement. It's happening and I couldn't be prouder.

3. People are different now to when I was growing up. The world is different too. I don't think people are better, they're nastier and more aggressive. I don't know why. We had an incident at the skate park this week. A boy of about 12 was being rude to the other kids and yelling at them. The other adults there didn't bother doing anything about it, but after he'd screamed at Eljay twice and nearly had him in tears I asked the boy to not be rude. I calmly and quietly said to him that it's okay to ask other kids to move, but please don't yell and swear at them. A whole pile (about 15) of teenagers came up and started recording me and yelling at me not to be a Karen. They didn't even know the boy who I was talking to so I have no idea why they got involved. I stayed calm and told them that I would like everyone to be polite. They kept on yelling at me so I walked off.

What is with that? Why be rude and aggressive to people, especially when it's nothing to do with you?

4. Also, what's with people not standing up for themselves? There was another man there watching the whole thing but he stayed as far away as possible. After I'd walked off he came up to see if I was okay. He said that he'd noticed the boy being awful to the other kids but he didn't say anything. He then said that there's no way he'd let his 16 year old go to the skate park because of the horrible (unsupervised) kids there. I told him that if everyone stays quiet then the nasty people will continue to get away with their behaviour and by staying quiet we're condoning it. 

He didn't have an answer to that one.

5. Since when can we not nicely ask people to be kind? Why does it have to be seen as a confrontation? Also, why do people think name calling is appropriate? Is that the way they're treated at home? I just don't understand the rudeness and nastiness of people.