My Pen Mates,
If we look beyond ourselves, beyond our immediate family, beyond our personal needs, it is easier to minimize the toils that we ourselves have to endure. Through self-examination, I have come to realize that knowing oneself is part of a bigger equation; for no one person is the center of the universe. While man himself may be the best of all creation, no one person can encompass all that there is to have, know, experience, and share. It is quite impossible to know oneself without a point of reference, and by this I do not mean a point of comparison, but rather a perspective to facilitate the realization that our personal issues are mundane to others and really should be treated as such.
Lest I give the impression that we all should live in apathy and indifference, and indulge in comparing our life status to others and taking solace in knowing that other people suffer and hurt more than we do, I want to outline a more practical view. We all have problems, fears, anxieties, longing and pain. We also exult in joy, contentment, hope, and excitement. These are common to both the prince and the pauper, and in this regard, we are all equal. So if we know this as universal, why overindulge in obtaining or suppressing their presence in our lives? Can working harder, worrying more, dissecting our existence to its core and defining our achievements and contributions to family and society bring any more or less of these human experiences?
I submit that we can only grow once we realize that we all have our share of the world's woes and joys, and that we can tip the scale towards the positive, not internally (for we can never eliminate their presence in our lives), but by affirmatively working to reduce the pain and increase comfort that other people experience. We've all heard the saying: charity begins at home. That's important for that's where we plant the seed for future citizens who will share this value that I describe. By setting the example and living the idea, we can then move onwards to helping those who need positive attention. Such kindness is deserved not just by a chosen few, but everyone we meet whose suffering we cannot even begin to know, see, or understand. Even the helper needs the compassion we may mistakenly reserve for the outwardly poor. Despite appearances, I've seen enough of the world to know for certain that we all can use an infusion of positive spirit. Maybe engaging in sharing this affirmation is the distraction we all need to keep us going given our unique personal toils. But it can also be that helping alleviate others' negative experiences creates a causal relationship in our quests to find resolutions against our personal demons. If such, then it's a gift that keeps on giving....
Mon
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