Little things can improve the world

To the editor:
Since my dad passed away almost 10 years ago, every Father’s Day I give thought back to my childhood and how different our society as a whole was when I was growing up.
It made me sad and melancholy as even my daughters who are adults now did not get to experience the wonderful world of growing up the way I did. I was definitely not the perfect child (got that in there for you mom) nor did I have what most would call the perfect childhood, but it was perfect to me. Probably one of the best things my parents taught me was to be kind to everyone — never make an enemy, as a friend may be needed one day. I am not so naïve to believe that I don’t have a few out there.
I have memories both bad and good that I can treasure for a lifetime. Flashlight tag and out until almost midnight on the weekends with “friend/family” from the neighborhood, carpooling to school (even without seatbelts), riding the bike to the park for games whether or not you were playing in them, eight to 10 close friends riding in a pickup truck shell so we could all go to the movies and laugh, sledding at the overpass, a friendly snowball fight/flag football in the field behind moms house or just taking a quarter to the dime store to spend because it was burning a hole in my pocket. We may not have been in our parents’ sight, but our parents knew where we were at all times because somebody was watching us within our community family. We had a blast and never once worried about violence or hatred.
Speaking of community family, in church this week we were reminded that as a community we should be family. Our community has lost several people within the last year-plus who had so much to give and yet no time to give it. My nephew Dustin Quakenbush and his cousin Stephen Sain were two of those people. Recently the inaugural Quake Show happened to raise scholarship money for Dustin’s graduating class. He would have been the first one there to help. He was not perfect, but to us he was.
In the news, world as well as local, question what is happening in our society. If you haven’t heard you are living in a dream world. What happened to people being able to get along and relate to one another as human beings? People, we are what is happening to society. You as an individual control what comes out of your mouth. If you spew hatred, that is what will return; if you spew gossip/contempt, that is what will return. We are the one’s responsible for creating and nurturing those who will outlive us and carry on. What kind of memories are you helping create for them? Violence, drugs, hate, fear?
I guess what it comes down to is kindness. A simple smile, a wave, holding the door for someone or even the acknowledgment that someone is there may make all the difference to that one person who may be not having the best day. I mean doing this even if your day is not going as you expected. I know it won’t cure all the woes of the world but it may make that one difference for that one person.
I for one am going to do my very best to make sure to live everyday like it is my last because you never know when that is and I hope that someday my children, grandchildren and so on will only have fond memories of me. Never judge a book by its cover because you don’t know the story it holds inside.
“Be the change you wish to see in the world” — Gandhi
Misty Clark
Portland