“Where we came from, if one did not want to die of poverty, one became a priest or a bandit!” That quote came from the spaghetti western, The Good the Bad and the Ugly. Thank goodness that isn’t where most of us came from today. However, with H.D. (High Definition) technology, we can all be fully exposed to the “good the bad and the ugly” every day of our lives. There are statistics available to us every day that describe how many crimes of various types are being committed every minute in various parts of our country, let alone in the world. We don’t even have to try to envision what it must be like for the victims because today’s movies and television programs depict these crimes in gory detail. Men and women are buying guns to protect themselves and their families in case the reality of it gets too close to home. Some of us, fortunately, live in parts of the country where there is very little crime and cruelty, and we can feel somewhat confident that we are safer than most. Many of us who are older lived during an era when it seemed like there was very little crime. Some who lived then would nostalgically like to go back to the day and time when we all left our doors unlocked, our keys in the ignition, and our children ran free without fear of being carried off somewhere. When I was young, we played outside every minute of the day that we could. Dinner time, potty time and bedtime were the only things that brought us in. Even then, we went reluctantly after we had been called many times and finally even threatened. Marbles, tag football, baseball, hide and seek, pump-pump-pull- away, kick the can, “Mother may I?” These were just some of the games we played well into the evening. I don’t recall ever being warned by parents that we had to watch out for bad people who might carry us away or hurt us in some way. Maybe we were all blissfully ignorant or naive of the dangers. Children are not often seen playing out of doors now days unless it is an organized sports program with adult supervision. Then there were fewer overweight children as well as adults. The level of obesity in children is a relatively modern phenomenon and one that has become of national and even international concern. Watching TV or playing video games for hours every day contributes to many problems that seemed non existent years gone by.
However, it seems that the modern day “bad and ugly” are more frequently a part of our lives. To say the “good ole days” were without bad guys would be stretching the truth, but I do believe that there were fewer of them. I even have a theory about why there may have been fewer of them. In the “good ole days,” there were fewer conveniences, just looking at their daily routines, from personal hygiene, to housework and the maintenance of home and cars. The extra steps that everyone had to take to ‘go and to do’ kept us, for the most part, out of trouble as well as slim and trim.
In spite of all the “bad and ugly” going on in the world, there are lot of very good people, wonderful people, who would be there for you if you needed them. I love to read about heroes, acts of kindness and expressions of love. The best way I know of to counteract the “bad and the ugly” is for each of us as individuals to be “good”—good as described by President Gordon B. Hinckley. He said, “But it is not enough just to be good. You must be good for something. You must contribute good to the world. The world must be a better place for your presence. And the good that is in you must be spread to others…”
There are a lot of ways to be good, to spread it to others and to contribute to this beautiful world we live in, and one important way is to become more involved in and with our families.
There is a saying to the effect that a couple can make a family and families make a village and a village can become a city and cities become a state and states become a country (maybe I just made that up). Where there is love, there are good people, and good people together do many good things. To know and to love our families is so very important to each individual member of the family. Families are the most important unit in the world and good families breed “Good Children and good citizens.” One way to strengthen a family is to tell stories. There are so many stories in every family. Every member big or small has a story to tell, not just the father, or the mother, but everyone. Encourage children to share their stories with other family members and provide an opportunity for them to tell their stories. Family Home Evening comes to mind. Write the stories down as they are shared so they can become a family story book available to every member of the family to be referred to any time. The power of great writing is in people’s stories. Points, data, studies are important, but a good story to illustrate is the most important. The stories will make them aware of the “good,” and that will make them want to be “good,” the kind of good that President Hinckley talked about. God bless us to follow the wise words of our Prophets.