Dead Fish or Duck Nest

We went kayaking for the first time of the year on Saturday, and it was a great day for it. The weather was nice and sunny and the water wasn’t too cold, but it was a refreshing aid to our legs after the sun had been beating down on them. It was a really good day, and when we were done kayaking we took a walk on the path they have that goes around the lake.  We came to the bridge over the dam and we were all looking over the side when we noticed the dead fish that you can see pictured here. We watched it for a long time wondering what had happened to the poor thing, how did it die? After a short while of wallowing in mild sadness over the death of our fishy friend, whom we had never met when he was still swimming (though we were very torn up about his demise), I noticed a mother duck sitting on her nest. She was nestled quietly in the grass on the side of the bridge, and none of us had noticed her, we were too focused on the dead fish, which made me think: Why were we so focused on death, a terrible thing, that we failed to notice a new beginning of life, a wonderful thing? Why do humans always seem to focus on the bad instead of the good? Maybe it’s because, like the fish, the bad things are openly displayed right in the middle of everything. Good things tend to be more like the mother duck, nestled quietly off to the side of all the action. Just watch the news one night. You’ll hear about murders and fires and rapes and kidnappings, all of these terrible things. Maybe there will be a small report about a charity event, or a school function, but most of the stories end up with victims of a traumatic experience.  Why can’t the world choose to focus on the good that it contains? I know that you might be thinking that if no one knows about things that are going wrong no one will try to fix these things, and I agree with you. To an extent. What if the news focused instead of on the fire that burned the family’s house down, on relief efforts that are being organized, and what we can do to help? What if they offered a segment each week on self-defense when you’re alone? I feel like these things would be more beneficial to our society then simply telling us about victims, they should try and prevent victims in the first place.