Fixing Our Focus

I came to this country as a tourist 42 years ago. I fell in love with the man of my dreams and fell in love with America. I’m a proud American citizen with four grown sons born and raised here, and the rest is history.
As an outsider, I can tell you that America is truly the land of opportunities. I have seen life in other countries and they all have challenges; some much bigger than ours. There is good and bad in every country, good and bad in all people. Sure, we experience spikes of ugliness and mistreatments from time to time, but why focus on that? If we lose sight of the big picture, we forget that there is also a lot of good all around us that we take for granted. While we might not choose the circumstances in our lives, we can choose the way we react. The issues are deep and real and must be addressed till we find solutions. We can get inflamed fast, point fingers at each other, and find that chaos will bring more chaos. Or through our active involvement, we can make things better as it’s our privilege and duty to make our voices heard in this democracy. We also need to be the change we want to see; understand that no place is perfect and nobody is perfect, but we can learn to embrace our differences and imperfections.
Grandma Moses said, “life is what you make of it.” It has been proven that anyone who works hard can get far in life; in this land, even a black person became the President of the United States of America. We all have the same rights and equal opportunities under the same American flag. Sure, success demands hard work. With good ethics and high moral standards, any minority can become successful.
The Talmud teaches us, “Do not do onto others what is hateful to you.” In other words, it is the golden rule that teaches us to treat others the way we want to be treated. With more tolerance, kindness, and respect, we can all learn to see the Godly soul in each other and our world will be a better place. It is not impossible to live a great life in this wonderful land.
I wish you all to be healthy and busy working on making your dreams come true. Happy Birthday America!
Naomi Young is an educator of Jewish studies and a Bar/ Bat mitzvah tutor in Santa Clarita for 37 years. She’s also a published writer and an artist. Contact her at naomiyoung7@yahoo.com Visit her art website at www.naomiyoung.com