Front Door

When serious issues matter.

This week’s acrostic: Front Door.

One of the social phenomena that I find particularly fascinating is that of when matters became serious to people and their families. This is not a dig nor a reference to anything in particular, but a general observation over the years.

In my experience of interacting with others, we are typically flippant or humorous when it comes to matters that we have not experienced ourselves nor the resulting effects. To name a few: bullying, cancer, death, or loss of a relationship. While there are definitely more, those are usually the most notable and common that I’ve heard of.

We can read dark humor, joke about beating someone up, laugh about death, or whatever on any given day without necessarily feeling the weight of what we are doing. There can be an unfortunate levity to our communication.

If we take a moment to reflect, there are serious matters that we have been flippant about or careless in our communication; then we end up in a situation where someone who has experienced those matters points out how serious they are; there is an awkward silence for a few moments and then interactions carry on. But that happens because of the weight of the matter; that situation has come to their front door and it takes on a different meaning than just a theoretical possibility.

So it is my thought that serious matters seem to only really matter when it comes to our metaphorical front door. When we must come face to face with a grave circumstance that cannot be dodged or circumvented; it must be dealt with in reality and we must consider the possible outcomes.

While this feels particularly sobering to write, it was on my mind this week. My point, though brief, is that I think we should tame our tongues, sympathetically consider the weight of the situations of others, enact care and compassion towards others before it takes arriving at our front door to care.

Though we should have joy in life, laugh a lot, be happy with what we have, we can also let serious matters be serious as they ought to be. Both can coexist. But let us come together to help one another, care for one another, and hope with one another in the face of those serious matters.

~Elliott