Natural disasters like last week’s massive earthquake in Haiti or the tsunami that killed so many a few years ago or wars, acts of terrorism, famine and the suffering in their wake is incredibly overwhelming.
We have a very privileged vantage point of the world. We are so lucky to be where we are and so relatively unscathed by the catastrophic randomness of life that triggers unimaginable suffering on our planet. We’re a little spoiled by the luxury of not having to worry about our survival from one moment the next.
Maybe that’s why we spend so much time navel-gazing, looking for gurus-du-jour, oracles and spiritual leaders. We jump around like we’re at some kind of existential buffet. We’re fickle. We pick one up, roll it around, put it down and move on. For a society with so much, we dispose at whim. We spend enormous amounts of time and energy looking to be entertained. We seem to have a hard time committing to anything substantial. We forget. Then, in the midst of what many would perceive to be inane pursuits, there’s a shocking reality check.
We’re all standing on the precipice together.
We must rememeber to hold on to one another.
Disasters—whether natural or man-made—can bring out the best and the worst in people. Look at how the world has been galvanized and moved into action to help those in need in the past week. Juxtapose that with the soulless, rancid ramblings of Rush and Robertson, hitching their political and religious wagons to other’s suffering to profit as false prophets, bowing and scraping at the feet of commerce at the expense of their fellow man, woman and child. They are our shame, manifest.
We can’t, as individuals, take on the massiveness of everything that’s happening around us, but we can deal with it in ways that can help fend off the overwhelming paralysis in the face of it all. We’re here. We’re alive. We’re challenged by life but not succumbing. We’re all standing on the precipice together. We must rememeber to hold on to one another.
What Would Happen If We…
Stopped looking at our own reflections and looked around
Realized we live in a community not a clique
Quietly did something selfless for someone
Viewed each other with compassion
Stopped trying to “get” and started to “give”
Used our voice for change and not just to be heard
Spread the word and not the disease
Remember that our value is not measured in dollars
Thought about others before we acted
Replaced Me with We
