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There seems to be a strong focus on negativity in our world. This is nothing new and I’m certainly not the first person to note it. Our news media sensationalises negative dirt bags and low life scum who prey on the innocent and weak and we love to sit in our armchairs and preach judgement.

Are we really better than them? Do we have the right to judge? Just because we didn’t rape or murder or sexually harass?

Humans are awesome. As the Cycling Maven puts it – cracking humans! I was essentially inspired by his last vlog to write this. You don’t need to watch it – unless you are a cycling fan! In which case it is a must! Subscribe to his awesome vids.

As he succinctly puts it there are a few douches out there but most humans are awesome. I was inspired by the example from his ride in the 2017 Indie Pac when it was cancelled and he was just outside of Adelaide just how many people responded with genuine offers of help.

Recently I have also been inspired by helping some people myself and seeing just how many people also just love to help in some way. We recently helped a lady who had been in a domestic violence situation move from a shelter to her own home. A large group of diverse people largely unknown to each other came together to offer furniture, their time helping, money for a ute and trailer, money for fuel and for no benefit to themselves, just to purely help another human in need.

Humans are awesome.

Negativity sucks. Yet so many people don’t understand this and constantly live in a cesspit of negative emotions, people and scenarios. I’m not pretending to be a guru, but I do not live in that world and I want to be able to help people who do.

So why are people negative? No idea. Really, I don’t. But I do know that negativity promotes and perpetuates negativity. Eh what? I’ll say it again.

Being negative keeps you being negative.

It’s harder in my opinion to be positive than to be negative. You must sometimes force yourself to be positive when it’s easier to whinge at life’s circumstances, other people or situations you find yourself in. But here’s what I have noticed about negative people. The more they complain about undesirable things that happen (and I'm not talking about major disasters (like breaking your nail)) the more undesirable things happen. In fact, the same undesirable things happen over and over – almost every day – to some people I know.

I can guarantee the response to my question of “how’s your day going?” on the phone to one friend – it is ALWAYS “shithouse”. And then he lives out his prediction, and generally the first 60 seconds of the phone call is him telling me what happened that was bad. Its nearly always the same things, traffic, bills, workload, other people dumping things on him, things “outside his control” etc.

These same “bad” things happen to me most days as well. If I choose to drive in rush hour traffic (I generally don’t for a reason) then I choose to accept the fact that I'm in it, find something good to listen to on the radio or use the time to call people, or sometimes just dwell with my own thoughts and wrestle problems over in my mind. I choose to be positive about the time I'm spending in the car (even though I may not actually like it) and not go all negative and complain about it. Essentially, I see it like this. FACT: I am going to be in the car as long as it takes to get where I am going. OPTION: I can choose to grumble and complain about this (including poisoning other people’s lives with my complaining about something that didn’t even happen to them afterwards) OR I can choose to find a positive happy way to deal with the situation. Often, I’ll just be mellowing out to the music on the radio when stuck in traffic enjoying the chance to have a compulsory relax for a while.

I'm pretty sure I am a better person when I get out of the car at the end of that drive for it. I remember road rage and its ugly.

So back to the humans are awesome thing.

There are some douchbags and dropkicks out there gaining media attention and making it seem like the world is a crummy place. That’s a negative way to look at it. I think there are lot more awesome people out there being awesome, giving up their time, money and resources to help others, being positive and showing positivity in bad situations and not dwelling on the negative things.

I want to encourage you to be an awesome human today.

I'm going to tell just one little story, partly because I'm really proud of my photography, and mostly because Michelle is an AWESOME human.

I met Michelle years ago and photographed her when she was a super fit young mum. See the first photo. Since then she has had breast cancer, had a double mastectomy and of course suffered through the hell associated with chemo and all that goes along with that. Negative stuff. Happens to lots of people. Nothing overly special there. Michelle is however an inspirational person who took it upon herself to liven up the chemo place with her neon tutu, and is now using the power of the tutu and positivity to help and encourage others also going through the tough times of breast cancer. She really wants to help women not feel pressured to have reconstructive breast surgery. She has chosen not to and understands there is a real societal pressure for women to have breasts.

So, we got to do a wonderful photoshoot with her and a male friend of mine Russell who has also had breast cancer and had a mastectomy.

So why not be an awesome human like Michelle and think how can I find the good, the positive, the best outcome from this situation or place I'm in? How can I be a joy to others and not a wet blanket of misery?

I think it was an interesting title for this post – at least I hope you think so, and I hope I explained it as well. In part this post was an attempt to write something personal once again on this blog. I write so much technical stuff (mostly not on this blog anymore) that I don’t seem to have time to write something non-technical. Nowadays social media rules so much that often personal information is given in unrelated disjointed twitter size sound bites.

So hopefully you are going to be an awesome human and go splash some positivity around you – especially to the negative people in your life – it might just rub off!

A poem I wrote in 1998 to two good friends who lost a baby just a few days after birth.

Mere words are never enough

We wish we were there to hold you and share in your loss

In this bittersweet time as Jesus takes your precious daughter to a better place

 

We hold you up in our prayers

Our love for you is not as strong as His

Let His arms enfold you and strengthen you in ways we never could

 

The life of your daughter was short

But she touched our lives in a very special way

May she sing with the angels in heaven tonight in praise to God

© Timothy Miller 1998

Rabid is a song I wrote in 1998. The notes at the bottom were for a band that took this song and performed it a number of times at events. They are now defunct.

1) Right thru these four walls

Out into the city

Maxicabs are flashing by

Limousines just glide

2) You can feel the music pumping

You can feel the city vibe

Energy in action

Solicitude you can’t find

The girls are out there walking…….

There’s something out there stalking……

3) It feeds off all the flavours

The smells, the tastes, the sights

No concrete self-awareness

Its animal; its alive

4) It hides, conceals awaits

For its unsuspecting foes

They scream out loud

It sucks – they stop!

It feeds, moves on, it preys

(Verse 1 repeat)

Right thru these four walls

Out into the city

Maxicabs are flashing by

Limousines just glide

5) Is it all that pretty

Is it all that nice

Or is it out there waiting

Like your other side

6) Which world do you live in

To which you go to hide

Or are you a silent stalker

Just feeding off the vibe

© Timothy Miller 1998

Musical short notes to Rabid

Start with a long slow guitar driving sound – basically a strum that goes on and on – repeated a few times – slowly building in volume – Bass to be keeping a very low volume

8 beats before verse 1 starts the drums will start with a double tap- off beat and then first beat

After 1^st verse increase bass volume

At end of 1^st verse drums crash in – starting from high tom and crashing down and then keep on drumming – rhythm drives into a big walled sound

Stop the rhythm guitar and bass for a couple of secs to say ‘the girls are out there walking” then one big strum then stop again for “there’s something out there stalking” – this sentence to be said with a huge delay (sounds like being inside a big empty warehouse) and an echo to get a “stalking…. talkin… alkin….” Echo

Now the rhythm and bass come back and the temp speeds up

Now come up one key and into a more frenzied attack on the rhythm guitar as the next 2 verses (3 & 4) are sung one after the other.

Go to a quick bridge into the lead guitar starting a long winding riff getting higher and higher ending in a big feed back loop to fade back to just the basic starting sound – drums finish up with some big rolls then go to brushes – or else real light

Repeat verse 1

Verses 5 & 6 sung one after the other

last two lines of verse 6 to be at an almost hush as the sound fades out – but as singer finishes “feeding off the vibe” the drums crash back in and all the guitars go back into an all out finish off

This is a poem i wrote in 1997 when my daughter Miranda was 1 year old.

She is now 16 and a half a beautiful young lady.

One day my little daughter - you will read this - I love you Miranda

My little daughter - how precious you are to me

I wish you never had to grow up

You are such a precocious child

The looks you give me are so mischevious

You imitate me in so many ways

You shake your head and cluck your tongue

You want to be like your Dad

He wants to show you how its done

But your dad sometimes hasn’t a clue

He has no idea what to do

He does what hurts when he wants to protect

Those he loves from the pain inside

I want to say what needs to be said

Instead I find myself writing this poem

I only hope you never know

The pain that can hurt so badly

© Timothy Miller 1997