Some very good comments by Robert Niles - Happy New Year!
www.ocregister.com
>>For many of us, breaking resolutions is as much a New Year’s tradition as making them. Still, it’s nice to start the year with the optimism that, somehow, this year can be better than the ones before.
How can we make that actually happen, though?
As a theme park fan, I always encourage fans to see all those other people crowding the parks around them as allies and potential friends, rather than enemies getting the way. Every once in a while, I will browse the descriptions that my new Twitter followers write about themselves. It’s an amazing mix of self-professed evangelicals and atheists, people wearing MAGA hats or rainbow shirts, and languages from around the world. It’s all the people that conventional wisdom tells us have retreated into ideological silos, never to speak to or hear from anyone else ever again.
But all those people still love theme parks, visit them, and read and talk about them. I am so thankful for that. At least at places such as Disneyland and Universal Studios, our human community has not fractured into irreparable pieces … at least not yet.
That is the opportunity that places such as theme parks provide us to make 2020 a better year. With an upcoming election and nonstop political conflict, many people in the news, on television and on the internet will be working harder than ever not just to further divide Americans, but to exploit those divisions. Never forget that people trying to make you mad at someone or something is doing that for a reason. And that reason almost always is for their benefit, not yours.
But theme parks are places for people to feel the opposite of the anger, hate and resentment that we get fed too often in the rest of our lives. At least, they can be when we allow them.
Remember in 2020, whenever you are in the parks, that you are there with your theme park sisters and brothers — people hoping to find a good time, just like you. Sure, we all are human brothers and sisters, too, which means we can get on each other’s’ nerves now and then.
When that happens, don’t let anyone else take you to a bad place. Don’t like what someone is doing? Try to do better yourself and trust that your example will inspire others. Appointing yourself the theme park cop is the fastest way to turn your day from magic to misery. Why take on the extra work to make yourself miserable?
The better way to preserve and protect this community is to give back to it. Be mindful of the people around you and the space you are taking up in the park. Respect park rules and clean up after yourself. If the kids (or you) are getting angry, give yourself a break and find an out-of-the-way space to relax for a bit. Heck, these rules apply pretty much anywhere outside the parks, too.
Ask any parent who has watched their children on Christmas morning, and I bet they will tell you that the greater joy comes from giving than receiving. The more we try to help each other instead of trying to beat each other, the better year that 2020 will be.<<
A New Year’s resolution for Disneyland fans
For many of us, breaking resolutions is as much a New Year’s tradition as making them. Still, it’s nice to start the year with the optimism that, somehow, this year can be better than the ones befo…
www.ocregister.com
>>For many of us, breaking resolutions is as much a New Year’s tradition as making them. Still, it’s nice to start the year with the optimism that, somehow, this year can be better than the ones before.
How can we make that actually happen, though?
As a theme park fan, I always encourage fans to see all those other people crowding the parks around them as allies and potential friends, rather than enemies getting the way. Every once in a while, I will browse the descriptions that my new Twitter followers write about themselves. It’s an amazing mix of self-professed evangelicals and atheists, people wearing MAGA hats or rainbow shirts, and languages from around the world. It’s all the people that conventional wisdom tells us have retreated into ideological silos, never to speak to or hear from anyone else ever again.
But all those people still love theme parks, visit them, and read and talk about them. I am so thankful for that. At least at places such as Disneyland and Universal Studios, our human community has not fractured into irreparable pieces … at least not yet.
That is the opportunity that places such as theme parks provide us to make 2020 a better year. With an upcoming election and nonstop political conflict, many people in the news, on television and on the internet will be working harder than ever not just to further divide Americans, but to exploit those divisions. Never forget that people trying to make you mad at someone or something is doing that for a reason. And that reason almost always is for their benefit, not yours.
But theme parks are places for people to feel the opposite of the anger, hate and resentment that we get fed too often in the rest of our lives. At least, they can be when we allow them.
Remember in 2020, whenever you are in the parks, that you are there with your theme park sisters and brothers — people hoping to find a good time, just like you. Sure, we all are human brothers and sisters, too, which means we can get on each other’s’ nerves now and then.
When that happens, don’t let anyone else take you to a bad place. Don’t like what someone is doing? Try to do better yourself and trust that your example will inspire others. Appointing yourself the theme park cop is the fastest way to turn your day from magic to misery. Why take on the extra work to make yourself miserable?
The better way to preserve and protect this community is to give back to it. Be mindful of the people around you and the space you are taking up in the park. Respect park rules and clean up after yourself. If the kids (or you) are getting angry, give yourself a break and find an out-of-the-way space to relax for a bit. Heck, these rules apply pretty much anywhere outside the parks, too.
Ask any parent who has watched their children on Christmas morning, and I bet they will tell you that the greater joy comes from giving than receiving. The more we try to help each other instead of trying to beat each other, the better year that 2020 will be.<<