- Image by Mr. Fotoshop via Flickr
Call me gullible. Call me naive. But when I first saw Chris Brown‘s performance at the BET Awards I didn’t question the authenticity of his tears. My initial reaction wasn’t, “What a punk!” I just took the moment in for what I perceived it to be – raw, unscripted, emotion.
In the ensuing hours, every celebrity tabloid on the planet was ripping him apart with “expert” analysis of the situation and instant replays of the tears. “Was this a desperate marketing ploy to save his music career? Were the tears real?”
Everyone was all too quick to assume negative intent and so eager to exert negative energy getting worked up about something we will never know for sure. It’s entirely possible that he faked his breakdown and that it was all a brilliantly choreographed publicity stunt.
But what if it wasn’t?
Think for a moment what would happen if we assumed positive intent. Assuming negative intent drains us. It saps us of our positive energy and makes us angry, frustrated, and just plain negative. Sure it is easy to dismiss Chris Brown as a immature, woman beating, egomaniac that should rot in hell. All those things may be true but how do you and I benefit by tearing him (or anyone else for that matter) down? The answer is we don’t. In fact, we never do. All we do do by thinking negative thoughts and giving them life through our words is successfully attract negativity and hate into our lives.
What if we decided to take a different approach and assumed positive intent by default. What if we stopped judging and contemplated the possibility that what we saw in Chris Brown was genuine emotion, a glimpse of raw humanity. Think of how inspiring the thought of someone actually looking in the mirror and consciously making a change can be. What if we allowed ourselves to believe in people again and their ability to change? Thinking about this possibility alone lifts my spirits, lightens my heart and encourages me to have faith in others.
Admittedly, we are a manipulated society. Polished politicians and slick talking, PR prepped celebs make it hard for us to know what to believe, who to believe or how to believe anymore. But the fact remains, you and I will never know what is in Chris Brown’s heart.
All that we have control over is our own hearts and minds and I hope that when given the option, you choose to fill them both with positivity and light verses negativity and darkness.
