Momentum...

Have you ever watched rain drops on your window? Or condensation on a drinking glass? Or spray on a shower door? The way a drop will form at the top of the glass and start to work its way down. If it is a lone drop it moves pretty slowly, but as it picks up more and more drops on its way down it speeds up.

This morning after my shower I watched the drops on the door for a little bit. I had done a quick swipe with the squeegee but not a really neat job because I was just going to clean the glass in a few minutes anyway. So there were gaps where there was no water, and spaces where there were pockets of smaller drops, and a few spaces where there was more water. Slowly a drop would start to make its way down the shower glass. I would look ahead to see when it was going to pick up the first few drops on the door. When they wouldn't be a lone drop anymore but a few drops joined together. Then I would wonder how long it would take before the slow slide down the door became a speeding race to the bottom.

It amused me.

But then I started to think.

This is like ideas.

And the space at the top of the shower where one drop is moving alone is like our pre-internet age. You might have had some wacky ideas, but you were pretty much alone in them. You might pick up a few stray drops here and there, but most likely it was a slow ride to the bottom of the glass. Now? No matter what you think you can be joined with more drops that think the same way you do. And then you have momentum.

Good or bad.

I listened to a podcast this morning on how they used a radio soap opera in Rwanda after the genocide to try to unite the country. It was really interesting. The gentleman whose idea it was was a survivor of the Holocaust. He had been studying how such a thing happened and what could be done to prevent it. When Rwanda happened he knew he needed to do what he could to make things better. It was really interesting (Hidden Brain podcast, I highly recommend them all) but one of the things that was mentioned that made me pause was that no political leader starts out thinking about genocide. That it's a process that happens that gets a country there.

There are steps. Or single drops that have to join, to keep beating my metaphor in to the ground. You have to bring a country along with you if you want to accomplish horrific things. Hitler couldn't have just taken office in Germany and said, "Hey, we're going to kill the Jews, and GO!" and have it done. There had to be the conditions for it (desperate financial times, still war torn from WWI) there had to be a population that was easily targeted (Jews in this case, Tutsis in the case of Rwanda) and people had to be walked along a path of dehumanizing their neighbors. But once they gained momentum they were in. Regular people helped round up their Jewish neighbors for the Nazis. Hutus slaughtered their fellow countrymen with machetes wiping out entire villages.

All of those drops joined together and racing to the bottom.

And here we are now. No matter what you think or believe you can find a group online to support you. Conspiracy theories, anti-science on a variety of levels, racist, homophobic...the lists go on and on. Even things that you might not think of as negative, necessarily. At least not at first. How many political groups can you join? And how many of those are actually just a front for "we're better, the other side is stupid" memes? Or religious or anti-religious boards? Watch where you spend your time and who you spend it with.

Jonestown didn't start with Kool-aid. Nxivm didn't brand women on their first day. There are steps. There are buy-ins along the way. They both seemed like good ideas to those that joined, at least at first.

You all know I'm not silent about my opinions. You all also know I have a temper and can go on a pretty good rage rant. But what I've been trying more and more to do is temper it. To show my disgust with what is happening in the world today but not spew more negativity out there. Now, my more conservative friends might not agree. We have a difference of opinion where the negative line is. I don't think pointing out that the president has done something I find reprehensible to be spewing negativity, I think it's trying to keep it from spreading. The whole "this is not normal" stance.

I also am trying to keep from posting on anything public that is really negative. If I post on a public feed it shows up on my friend's timelines. Sometimes I remember, sometimes I don't. And sometimes I feel like what has been said shouldn't just be left there without an opposing view. I want other people to know that there are other drops out there like them. That it's not all brackish water right now.

So it's a balancing act.

Which leads me to ask you, where is the momentum in your life? What are you focusing on? Where is your energy? Who are you seeking out? Who are you joining?

Pay attention. Look at what you are saying. Look at what you are doing. Make sure you aren't racing to the bottom with a group that you really never intended on joining. Better to be a slowly moving drop of positivity than a flood of  nastiness.