I've been thinking...
The way I see things, there are three general types of people in the world today. Bad People. Great People. And the rest. It's funny, because the more I think about it, the more these generalizations seem to ring true in my mind. You have people who are just bad, mean, terrible people. They have no desire to do good in the world, they are out to please no one; sometimes they don't even care about their own self. These people are the ones who make you pull your hair out every time you read the news. These are the ones that you see on the streets or hear about in stories and think to yourselves: "what on earth is going through their brain?" And most of the time, you don't have an answer.
Then there are the great ones out there. These people are the ones that have inspirational stories and feel-good billboards created because of their life. These are the people that accomplish so much with their life; despite being poor, molested in their youth, born with all manner of disease, forced to sleep with rats in someone's basement, ugly, raped, have no legs, ears, arms...whatever. These are the people that did something in life that in one way or another affected someone else. Now I'm not saying that the affect has to be on a global scale, but you get the point.
Then there are the rest of us sitting in the un-defined, mis-understood third category. This category is for the people out there that are usually defined as the ordinary, every-day folk that just go about their business. We normally view these people as the upstanding people who haven't changed the world, but are just plain good.
Here's my problem: When did this category become an acceptable characterization of someone?
When did it become okay to be just good? When did that happen? As far as I am concerned people should either be great or they should be terrible; when did just being become an option? People go about their 9 to 5's without making a significant impact on anyone or anything around them, then come home and do the very same thing from 5 to 9...and that's a good life. These are the people who get up, go to work, eat lunch, punch the clock, eat dinner, watch American Idol, and go to bed. This is what we have become.
Just to prove I am not yanking the beam out of my neighbor's eye, I am willing to admit that the whole reason I am writing this is because I couldn't fall asleep tonight because I sat in bed thinking about how I have become apart of this way of living.
So how do we get out?
Glad I asked. Here's what I think: Do Something. I don't care what it is. It doesn't matter. But it does matter that you actually follow-through and do it. Rid the world of something terrible - or clean your kitchen, whatever. But Do it. To many of us are just living through the day-to-day stuff with no real vision for the rest of the world out there. We need to stop for a moment and realize that there are things out there that need doing. There are people to befriend, diseases to eradicate, years of hatred and pride to reverse, homeless puppies to save, whatever your passion; get to it.
I refuse to be a part of this group anymore. I refuse to be average, to be good. I am going to become more than just good. My passion is education; I think there are too many ignorant people in the world - which, I believe, is the source of a majority of the world's problems. So I am going to work on that. I am going to educate as many people as I can, myself included. Not sure how I am going to do this, or what I am even going to do, but I am going to do something. I will no longer idly trudge through days of mediocrity, wistfully dreaming of tomorrows to come. Tomorrow has come. Break's over.