Life was never intended to be a walkabout in which we find
ways to best indulge ourselves. Living unto our own needs and wants is
sentencing a human feature that should define us to perish while out on center-stage
abandoned by all thought of others we stand performing a script by and for
ourselves. The word humanity means both kindness towards people and mankind.
Being thoughtful towards others should be an integral part of who each of us
is. Kindness is not a feature of the human race, it should be the defining
concept of the human race -- its very breath. Human and kindness are synonymous
in meaning, and they should be also in practice. Outstanding people those who
are very kind to other humans are given rewards for being humanitarians, for
trying to help others. We value our association with being kind that is
compassionate and caring towards others yet so rarely do we actually live the
lives of humanitarians.
To me, American society is not a humane place to live. We
are driven not by affections for each other, not by care or regard for one
another, but on the contrary we are a society compelled by our own lusts to
acquire, to conquer, or most important of all to idolized. Every driving force
behind a majority of human behavior is derived straight from the desire to
increase “self.” We look not for opportunities to help others, but rather for
opportunities to help ourselves.
The single universal explanation for all our self-centered endeavors
is a simple concept – happiness. Happiness is the elusive breath which we need
to live, yet like the air we breathe, we cannot see it or grasp yet just like
air, it is vital. We try most every way imaginable to create happiness, but all
such attempts to create the feeling do not make happiness, at best a mirage or delusion.
Happiness, it is no secret, cannot be bought or found by seeking it. Happiness
is almost always a fleeting fragile moment somewhere in the future or in the
past. Happiness is always a few steps away because we try to grab it. Happiness
in many ways is like trying to capture a sunset in a painting. Even if the
colors are spot on with the sunset, even if all the shapes are right, the best
painting never does justice to the real thing. It lacks the smells that rest on
the gentle breeze that tugs at your hair, it is missing the warm feel of the
delicate fading rays of sunshine, it lacks the momentary changing nature of
life. Hold the best painting up to the real thing, and the painting has no soul
in contrast to a sky burning with the falling, fading rays of a summer sun. Remember
the times in your life when you were profoundly happy. Are your memories those
of buying a new computer, winning a washer-machine at a raffle, or are your
times of happiness the times you laughed with friends and family over silly
things until you cried, or perhaps you traveled from the smog smitten city out
into clean country air and you saw the incomprehensibly vast night-sky with
your best friend for the first time? Those times when you were happy, were you
trying to be, were you thinking about yourself at the time, thinking about your
job, your hair, your weight? I doubt it.
Happiness, we find, not while trying to cultivate it, but in
the very root of our identities, in the fact that we are humans, we are meant
to serve each other – by being kind, compassionate, empathetic, and lifting up
those who fall down. Have you ever brightened someone’s day, seen their face
pass through winter and into spring. Hear them laugh, or see a pain in their
eyes fall away? The most certain way to find enjoyment in life is to quit trying
to find it for yourself, and try to help others find it. Stop trying to create
an emotion, and start building up people. Conquering the world is no great thing,
cultivating compassion, and love within a world where people are so often
separated from happiness by the distance they should be carried by the kindness
and love of others. If you want to be happy, lose yourself in the service of
others.
