We live in two worlds now.
In the first one we carry on with our lives – work, home, family – and count our little blessings.
In this world we get on with each other well enough, be it in traffic jams or queues at Woolies.
It’s not perfect but it’s pretty good for most ordinary people who call Down Under home.
Things are not so rosy when we leave this world behind to enter a virtual reality also known as social media and the internet.
Indeed the nastiness and bitterness on the various social media platforms can at times be really disturbing.
It can be so relentlessly negative you suddenly ask yourself: what am I doing in this dark, foreboding place.
It certainly ain’t for inspiration to do good things for your fellow human beings.
I guess the best you can say about social media is that it’s a necessary evil that provides a contrast to what really happens.
So here we are, a few hours before Christmas Day, the celebration of everything that’s good about human beings: generosity of spirit, kindness and love for all.
There’s no doubt that’s what most people will be doing tomorrow, and that does warm one’s heart.
The truth is that if it was a toss up which world we would prefer, well, the real world would come first, and daylight second.
Let the schmucks have social media, while the rest of us enjoy the best life has to offer our species.
And let Christmas be the time to remind ourselves that being civil and polite to each other is way better than yelling insults at each other.
All through 2019 this came through loud and clear in the stories of Macarthur and South West Sydney.
The positive stories were in the clear majority and there’s no reason this won’t continue into 2020 and beyond.
Merry Christmas.
