Wanna know what’s easy? Something easy that we all can do? Something where no skills are required? Something that’ll give you a quick boost of adrenaline or dopamine? Wanna get involved? Well, sure you do because most of us are already heavily engaged.

Yo, it’s so easy to speak on something we’ve never done. It’s so very easy to write, comment, reply, post, respond, and engage in a deep discussion on topics or events we have no experience with. Yo, it’s so easy to criticize what others are doing, that we have no ability to, no interest in, or confidence with doing ourselves.

Internet thuggin is on the rise yall! Man, we can meet these same thugs in person and they will be so cordial, nice, and quiet! All of this stuff we are posting back and forth to folks is just so easy to do when we know we’ll never see these people. And it’s just amazing how all of a sudden, we can say the mostest and the meanest things to one another. Get in the same room: quiet. What the old folks used to say? So quiet, you can hear a mouse piss on cotton. 

Yo, it’s so easy to show your true colors! How you really feel…yo your slip is showing. “Your slip is showing is an old African American colloquialism. Google it. But here is my question, why? Why is it so easy to put our negative words on others? How has this become okay nowadays? Surely this isn’t what we were taught. Matter of fact, I recall being told that if I didn’t have anything nice to say, don’t say nothing at all. Hmmm, we must not be teaching this anymore.

Why are we taking pride in talking down to others? Why do we scream “freedom of speech” but are often the same ones offended by everything someone has said? Yo, I’m confused. We can slander someone’s name. We can stereotype people by their choice in political candidates. We can say disgusting things about kids; yet, let someone say something ill about your child. Yo! Why are these things so easy for us to do? YET we are overly sensitive when others do the same things???

Why is it so easy to smile, laugh, and make jokes about the things we did when we were growing up; yet, roll our eyes at the generation coming up behind us? We mock the generations that have gone before us, as if that’s not where we are headed? 

Yo, it’s so easy to fall into the trap of being negative on the internet towards strangers and those we are closest to. How about being different? Something simple we can do is remember that we have kids too, and we don’t want anyone talking bad about them. We also have feelings, so chances are great…the next person does too. How about we just remember that this social space can be used for much more than trash talking, political bashing, negative messages, etc.

It can be a space where we watch our family and friends from afar grow up and evolve. Ever congratulate the birth of a child; blink and then congratulate that same baby on their graduation day? How incredible is that? It’s a space we can pray for one another as we age and begin having other complications that life seems to bring to us all. It can be a space where we can learn to cook, learn to dance, or learn a new skill and share it with our fans. It can be a safe space if we begin to operate safely within it.

It’s so easy to forget to be kind; but it’s just as easy to remember to be kind.

And to remember that you are your own competition.

Competition of 1