Love

I had a visit from a 12-year-old girl yesterday.  She comes from a religious family.  We were talking about teenagers helping out with chores around the house and garden and I said that mostly if you see someone you love with too much to do you help them out of love.  She said "I don't think there's much love in the world".  It's a sad conclusion for such a young girl to come to.  When I challenged her assertion she said she had offered to carry a heavy load of shopping for an old lady, but her offer had been rudely refused.  She asked if I would accept such an offer from a young person I didn't know.  I said I would, but would take care my money was in my pocket and not in the bag. 

I blame the media for the poor opinion we all have of each other.  News of bad behaviour sells newspapers and happy stories mostly don't.  Trailers of films or TV programmes show the nastiest and most violent clips, sure that those are what will attract the viewers.  With what enthusiasm does the media follow the corruption or infidelities of people in the public eye!

We must, as a society, be doing something wrong if a 12-year old, religious girl thinks there's not much love in the world.  There certainly is, but nobody likes to talk about it.