People are People

People are People

This weekend I was in New York performing a seminar at Brooklyn Athletic Club.  I got to hang out in New York with my beautiful wife, Emily Drew.  I also got to hang out with some new friends Alec, Gabi, Mark, and Cara along with the whole crew that took my seminar.  Here’s what I discovered.  Yes, New Yorkers are loud, wild, and crazy.  The other half of that is they are lovable people that won over my heart.  The moral is don’t be quick to judge a group of people.

While I was there, I told the group taking my seminar about my childhood.  Most of you know that I grew up in the Mountains of North Carolina.  Mountain people are the best.  We support one another.  We are strong and loving people.  However, normally we are suspect of different cultures, ethnicities, and religions.  I’m sure that is a holdover of the people that settled the mountains.  The Scotch Irish were known to be a type of people that wanted to be left alone, which is why they settled in the deepest parts of the Appalachian Mountains.  They wanted to do things their way, and they didn’t really care what everyone else was doing.

This type of settlement is bound to form certain conclusions regarding foreigners.  That’s ok I guess.  That’s whom they were, and I am proud of where I come from.  The Mountains made me strong and courageous, but thank God I was born with something else.  I was born with curiosity.   I was also born with a desire to read and learn.  The more I read left me with a desire to travel and find out for myself all about different people and lands. 

See I have never been able to simply take someone’s word as fact.  I have always needed proof.  This desire for proof got me in a lot of trouble when I was younger as I was always debating with teachers.  I wasn’t really debating.  I just wanted them to prove some of the statements that they were making. Now that I am grown up, I hope that my children do the same thing.  I don’t want them to take the opinions of others as the gospel.  I want them to know the difference in fact and opinion. 

By now we all know what they say about opinions.  Yes, we all have them, but opinions are irrelevant in the world of facts.  I want my children to base their opinions on as many facts as possible, while forming their own conclusions.  When I was growing up, I was told that New Yorkers are fast talking, heartless, and cunning city folk.  I can hear some of my relatives talking now, “Boy you better be careful up there in New York.  Those people will get you.”

I remember the first time going to New York. I was scared out of my mind because I thought everyone was trying to con me. Now I Know that they are people just like Mountain folk are people.  Here’s one thing that I have learned in all of my travels:

“People are people no matter where you go.  There will be nice people, and there will be not so nice people.  Personally I have found people to be nice more times than not.”

With that being said, go out there and explore the world.  Yes, you can stay in your hometown your whole like and remain safe, but you will miss out on the opportunity to explore this incredible world that God has gifted to us all.  He has placed all of us on this beautiful planet and filled it with interesting people and places.

Nothing is more exhilarating than waking up and looking out of your window to catch a glimpse of the Empire State Building, Niagara Falls, or the Eifel Tower.  I suggest that you all throw your televisions away, and go out there and be the director of your own documentary.  You need to put your smart phones down and experience God’s incredible planet with your eyes, heart, and spirit.  I want all of you to take it all in while you are here on earth.  Our time on this planet is short, and everyday that you wake up is one day closer to losing your opportunity to explore it. 

There is one more thing that I want to bring to your attention before I let you get to the beginning of your week.  It’s this thing at the border.  There is no way that I am going to come at this topic from a liberal or conservative outlook.  You know why?  It’s because we are talking about children.  It baffles me when I see parents and grandparents talking about the situations as if it were some political game that were are playing.  When a child is involved, it isn’t a game.  You can’t use a child to make your political point. 

This topic is a lot like the gun issue.  We need to take a timeout, and forget our political association and instead remember that we are all human.  If a child is involved, we need to address the issue right now.  Anyway this is my two cents.  Let’s just remember that we are humans.  Children shouldn’t suffer for us to prove a political point, and I am talking 100% to both sides.

Someday I would love it if there were a new political party called, The Human Party.  I know that we will never see things the same, but there is a lot of stuff out there that could improve if political parties didn’t exist.  There are a lot of smart people in the world.  If they could sit down together while leaving their egos at home, I feel like that we could make a lot of strides towards improving the world.  I know, I know!  I am an optimist to a fault, but I sure don’t believe that the current system is succeeding on a lot of issues that need work.

Love you guys, and thanks for listening to my rants.  At the end of the day, I am just a good ‘ole country boy.  What do I really know anyway?