[Ailist] Loving Politicians etc

[Nick Heap]

I have had some thoughts about making the world a better place for a long
time and just wanted to share them with you. I have a feeling they just
could make a difference and be quite simple to do. I wonder what you think?

Love politicians

This is a radical thought! Politicians are people so, however it may appear,
just like us they are always doing the best they can. It may not be the best
possible, but given their history and circumstances it is the best they can
at the time. So blaming and criticising is no help. In any case, you can't
manage the past only learn from it.

Politicians may enjoy exercising power, but so do we all. They do decide to
manage on our behalf anything that may happen. This is an awesome
responsibility. All of them would earn much more in a less demanding role.

I would like to see us supporting and loving politicians rather than
criticising them personally. Challenging their ideas is fine. If we elect
them to help us, we should help them. One way might be to catch them doing
something right and send an appreciative note. Another might be to offer
some time or a listening ear. What do you think you could do?

Finding the healthiest happiest people and discovering why and how

Some people are both healthy and happy. They are not necessarily “rich”.
There is no evidence that material wealth, beyond quite a modest income,
adds to either. It could be that these happy and healthy people are doing
some things, or thinking some things that directly contribute to them being
happy and healthy. If this is so, and we knew what it was, we could choose
to do the same.

We could find some healthy and happy people and find out what they do and
how they think. Who knows, there might be simple things we could all do.

There are already some clues active churchgoing can add years to active
life. A positive attitude to ageing can do the same.

Neighbours from heaven

I get fed up and depressed by all the television programmes that show people
at their worst. They are typically called “Neighbours from hell”. I imagine
the effect on the viewers is either to confirm their prejudices that people
are awful or that this is all you can expect from a particular class or
group of people. Neither is very productive.

So, what about some programmes e g “Neighbours from Heaven” that showed the
best of people instead? These would show heart-warming stories of
extraordinary generosity and kindness. Instead of depressing the viewer,
they would challenge and inspire her or him to do something similar. This
would increase the amount of positive energy and spirit. If might encourage
more of us to pay attention to good things, and then we would feel better
too.

These are three of a longer list that is here
http://makeyourworldhappy.blogspot.com/

If you have any comments, or can suggest ways of progessing these thoughts,
I would be glad to hear them.

Best wishes

Nick

Web: www.nickheap.co.uk