Can you feel the love tonight?

I can't.

Have you ever spent any time reading the comments on the articles on Yahoo? I don't know why I waste my time mostly, but sometimes, I'm still in shock at how mean people can be.

Mean about things that have nothing to do with them. Mean about the people the article is reporting about. Mean about the way someone looks, acts, or behaves.

Mean for the sake of being mean.  Snide.  Rude comments that are only intended to ruffle feathers and most likely not based in fact. 

I don't know why I go back and read them.  I must get some sort of sick pleasure from it.  Or it reaffirms that I'm not as mean...as....awesomeguyiloveamerica12039820. 

Whatever my purpose, I suppose their meeting theirs.  Because here I sit, feathers sufficiently ruffled. 

This popped up on my facebook feed and I (and my feathers) decided to share:

Before you learned to speak, you loved with no effort; you forgave with no effort. It was natural to love; it was natural to forgive.  don Miguel Ruiz.

Now I guess it's just natural for people to be a-holes.  So what happened?

I'm pretty sure the internet didn't help. It removed every filter in our heads that tells us "hey, maybe we should do/say that because it might....." 

But we were most likely having these thoughts before it becomes socially acceptable to anonymously attack a stranger on a yahoo comment board.  Or anyone, for that matter.

Are our filters weaker? Are we getting meaner? Are we really treating others that poorly? If we come out of the womb knowing how to naturally love and forgive, where do those abilities go?

I still have mine. But I can attest they have been stifled.  By life, what I was taught as a kid, and now...the dialogue in my head.  

 I am not the nicest person either. Elements of my personality combined with my DNA (from my daddy-o) sometimes turn me into a mean old bitty.  I get that we all have that in us and that we were all taught to aspire those things in life that make people envy us.

But it's the filter part that I'm having a hard time with.

Prior to hitting that comment button, prior to saying something out loud, prior to sending that nasty email or gossiping, can we stop for one second and think, "is this really necessary?"

I bet that most times it's not.

And because I know that I'm human and will continue to be bugged by any number of things that don't matter, I'm seriously considering buying myself this:

Right?  I think I need it.