Category: Humanity

Let Compassion Be Your Compass

So many other emotions and impulses can so easily become our “true north.”

I’ve always felt compassion is a noble aspiration. It brings together love and empathy.

It requires us to temper the pompousness of our hot takes with an understanding of who we really are – both us and the person on the other end of our actions and words.

It calls on us to see our flaws and our greatness and the same in the other person. It asks us to stand their shoes and see their perspective for a moment.

It puts to rest the idea that there’s one privileged way of seeing the world and opens us to the possibility there as many ways to see it as there are people.

Our consciousness encompasses the reality that our perspective is sacred, but no more so than someone else’s.

Despite the vast commonalities of the human experience – commonalities we can and must draw upon to solve many of our problems – compassion brings us to an undeniable truth.

It’s possible to be someone who works alone on a tractor all day on thousands of acres and has a life experience that leads to you to certain, very valid conclusions about life.

It’s equally possible to be someone who lives in a big city, rides the subway or sits in traffic, has people “on top” of you all day, and has a life experience that leads you to equally certain, equally valid conclusions about life.

Compassion is understanding that process and seeing those different roads as not a threat, but a natural outcome of different people and different experiences leading to different conclusions. It’s embracing that and being big enough to encompass it all without anger, judgment, or fear.

Compassion is an ultimate expression of the concept of freedom. It goes beyond an intellectual acceptance that there are different views in life and all the way to a deep understanding that it’s supposed to be that way and it’s OK.

It asks us to grant the same grace we seek from others. That grace? It’s the grace to be accepted for who we are, for where we are on our journey, and what our unique life experiences have taught us.

When we can grant that grace as readily as we expect it, that’s compassion. We will find no solutions to the difficulties in the world nor the difficulties in ourselves without its light shining within us.

Have a peaceful and prosperous day!

Ray

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The Change Is Us

Happy Friday, dear readers.

When the world comes to a challenging moment, we have a tendency to look to the sky or look to our leaders to do something about it. I’m all for trusting in God or the Universe. There is always a big plan in the works, but we should remember our voices, our actions, our commitment to affect change is part of that plan.

World leaders? They often had a hand in landing us in the difficulty. I have less confidence there. Still, we can influence that too, whether democratic or not, all leaders, when it comes right down to it, are subject to the will of the people.

Our hand is weakened when we trust lies and fear-mongering. We must stop buying into their low energy arguments that frighten people into going along. We must stand committed to not electing nor supporting leaders win by dividing people and severing us from our highest impulses and aspirations.

There’s a great quote by the American comedian Lily Tomlin. “I always wondered why somebody doesn’t do something about that. Then I realized I was somebody.”

You are somebody and so am I. We can wait for change like it’s a

THE CHANGE IS US!

Wherever you are on your journey today, put your mind on your side.

Ray

11 Things We Should Know By Now

Good evening, my friends. The events of the past week have reminded us that Covid is not the only virus running through humanity. Inhumanity, selfishness, and ego also run rampant.

Vladimir Putin’s unjustifiable attack on Ukraine is horrific, but only the latest example of this kind of behavior among nations, especially those with lots of power.

Not only is horrible for the people of Ukraine, it’s a gut punch to species we could be and should be in 2022. There’s this fear that there’s not enough and I better get mine that ruins the minds of powerful men and wrecks nations and the world.

I got to thinking. What are the lessons we should have learned by now, but haven’t. I’m sure the list could be much longer. Here’s 11 than relate directly to the events of this week.

In times like this, it’s more important than ever to put your mind on your side.

11 Things We Should Know By Now

  1. War solves nothing. It just kills people.
  2. When you attack someone else’s country they don’t greet you as liberators.
  3. Peace is not just preferable. Peace should be an existential goal of our civilization.
  4. Big countries bullying little countries goes well at first and then turns destructive for the big country.
  5. When this war of aggression is over, we should not have decades of renewed Cold War over it. There’s nothing that serves the people of this planet less.
  6. Nuclear weapons are no longer a deterrent. They only give those who have them free reign to behave as they wish.
  7. Russia is not the first large country to attack a weaker nation based on crap evidence. Some of us need to sweep our own front porch.
  8. If we spent the money we spend on weapons on this planet on productive and aspirational things, this damn species might have a chance.
  9. Only love conquers hate. Only justice conquers injustice. There’s no path to peace. Peace is the path.
  10. Leaders bent on division and destruction and ego should not be leaders on this planet anymore.
  11. We are running out of time to learn these lessons and apply them.

Love Thy Neighbor

There is no ethical or moral code that ignores this basic principle. So many of the ills afflicting our minds and our society could be greatly mitigated by doing this one thing.

Certainly, there are many on the planet who believe this to be much harder than it actually is. They’ve seen the ugliness people are capable of up close. For many, their protection mechanism has become to blame the whole species.

There are a couple of simple mind shifts that can get us back on a more productive track.

  1. Stop blaming humanity for the faults of some humans. There are literally billions of good people out there trying to make their way in this crazy world just like you. Shift your focus to that fact.
  2. See people as individuals and each situation as unique. We have a tendency to generalize and categorize our way to a point where we don’t trust anyone or anything. Renew your commitment to see each person for the unique individual they are rather than grouping them into a label. See each situation as unique. The fact that you’ve been hurt in say a relationship, doesn’t mean that the best relationship you can imagine isn’t out there for you.

Love your neighbor. Give them the same chance you want and deserve. People will surprise you and you’ll find more joy and happiness in your interactions with others.

You know you’re amazing! Just reminding you.

Ray

Happy Star Trek Day – How Has Star Trek Positively Shaped Your Life?

TODAY’S QUESTION: WHAT POSITIVE IMPACT HAS STAR TREK HAD ON YOUR LIFE?

So, I know this question won’t resonate with everyone in the group. For those that it does resonate with, and you know who you are, what positive impact has Star Trek had on your life?

MY STAR TREK STORY

My story with Star Trek goes back to my earliest days back in the 1960s. I vaguely remember watching the last couple of seasons in the TOS original run. Then, fortunately, it went into reruns in Kansas City almost immediately on our UHF station.

That ran on late Saturday afternoons and I would stop what I was doing to go inside and watch Star Trek.

When Next Generation came along in the late 80s, it became and remains my all-time favorite television series. I hung on through DS9 & Voyager and then life intervened.

It was only years later that I doubled back and realized what a great series Enterprise actually was and have since consumed the newer series in real time.

For me, Star Trek has always been about Gene Roddenberry’s positive vision for humanity.

1) That there will be a time when humanity will set aside the worst in us and aspire to the highest in us.
2) That there will come a time, beyond our current economic models, where technology will abolish human need.
3) That there will come a time when humanity joins the family of advanced spacefaring cultures that likely populate the galaxy around us.

Roddenberry’s vision came about only after humanity self-destructed and rose again from those ashes. It has always been an remains my hope that we can reach these lofty goals without suffering through that fate.

More than anything, Star Trek taught me, from a very early age, to dream big both for myself and for our species. That vision has and continues to profoundly shape my world view. It has many times girded me against the impulse to turn cynical, give up on humanity.

We are a species with amazing potential and Star Trek is always there to remind us of that.

Happy Star Trek Day!

Ray