Chuck Woodbury
EDITOR’S NOTE: The following was written by Chuck Woodbury, publisher of RV Travel, and is reprinted with permission.
Welcome to 2022, also known as “Year Three of the Pandemic,” where a virus continues to show us who’s really boss. Sadly, to me, it’s potentially another year of the “Angry American.” So many of us are mad about something. We see evidence of it here at RVtravel.com in the reader comments.
With that in mind I would like to suggest a New Year’s Resolution for at least some of you: Calm down. Be understanding. Be nice!
I came upon this cartoon (at right) a while back. Now seems like a good time to show it to you.
Do you think that maybe, in 2022, we can all take a deep breath, and consider that living with anger is a waste of time and energy, and counterproductive to our lives and others? To me, it’s far worse now than ever. Some of these angry people hate — yes “hate” — those who disagree with them, whether politics or anything else. Many of them, I believe, do so without even thinking about it. They seem to want their political party to be THE ONLY political party.
Okay, fine. Let’s set up a fund to fly them to North Korea, Afghanistan or Russia, where one party runs the show. See if they like that.
Come on, everybody, calm down. Relax. Breathe deeply. Exhale slowly. Repeat! Celebrate that not everybody sees things the same as you. Yes, celebrate! The other person is not necessarily wrong.
Look at the image to the left.
What do you see, a wine goblet or two faces? If you see two faces, you are correct. If you see a wine goblet you are correct. If you see one thing and another person sees the other, you are both correct. You can argue about it all day long. But the fact is, you are both right and, I suppose, you are both wrong. I believe we need to learn that our truth is not necessarily another’s truth, and that is okay.
I’ll tell you this, and I bet you will agree: If you sit around a campfire with a dozen other RVers and talk about “life” everyone will be cordial and friendly to each other. If they disagree, they will talk about it civilly, not with anger, with no need to belittle someone for not sharing their beliefs. If we can do it at a campfire, we can do it online and everywhere else.
So please, in 2022, try harder than ever to understand those people who see the world differently than you. And help others do the same.
May you have a safe, healthy, productive and happy 2022. And thank you for being a part of the RVtravel.com community, where our staff works hard every day to make your RVing lives better than the day before.
