keeping track
I don't understand people who think that kindness and generosity are weaknesses or flaws. The idea that helping someone is only valid if you get something out of it is abhorrent. I am tired of the "me first" attitude. No man or woman is an island, and we all have something to give each other. Whether it is helping someone get back on their feet, a sympathetic ear to lend, practical help of any kind...whatever you can do. The idea of individualism gets twisted. It is less about self-expression (what it should be), than self-entitlement. We break ourselves down into factions, cliques and units and only care about our little insular worlds and everyone else be damned. And that is just ass-backwards. When there were less human beings on this planet, when there was less technology, less advertising and products, inflated and invented needs for which an endless supply of unsatisfying crap, less focus on looks and more focus on substance....when we truly depended on each other in tangible, concrete ways just to survive on this world.....then we understood the need of community. And I don't mean certain segmented communities....divided by constructs of "race",class, gender, religion, politics, sexual preference, hair color, musical tastes, sports team of choice, ad nauseum, ad infinitum... I mean the human community....the human family if you will. We are all on this planet together. Ignoring each other is not enough. Tolerance is not enough. Stop keeping track. reach out your hand. Even on a small, one by one basis, you can make the world a better place. Even in the face of ugliness of the soul, miserliness, hatred and fear, don't stop trying. If you can look yourself in the mirror at the end of the day and know that you have lived your life that day in a way that lives up to your standards of being a good person.....that is worth so much more than the approval and opinions of others. It may not make you the most popular person on the planet, but you are who you have to live with every day. Material things only go so far. Life is short and we all die. Death comes for us all at the end, and we know that...so why do so many of us act like nothing matters? I want to make the most of my life...give as much as I can, love as much as I can and leave with nothing but the satisfaction of a life well lived.