vendredi 12 avril 2013

Being the Best Human Being I Can Be

Today I ran into a friend of mine who had run for a political office but was not elected.  She had spent a hard year campaigning, a schedule so demanding that nearly every waking hour was scheduled.  But suddenly she didn't have a job, she didn't have a schedule and in its place was a big "what's next?"

To her credit she hasn't rushed in to fill the void but now a few months later, she is looking to capitalize on her efforts and her contacts.  As we were speaking she kept asking herself how she could make the biggest impact. And this made me think, how does one be the best human being?

Is being the best human a result of our effect on the outside world?  And if so who is doing the measuring?  For those of you who regularly read my irregular blog, you may well guess that my answer is emphatically NO.  Being the best human you can be has nothing to do with external results but has everything to do with waking up. Maybe you ask what about Martin Luther King, Jr or Mother Theresa or Joan of Arc?  While all incredible people, I have no idea as to what their internal state was and that is my sole measure being the best human you can be.

So how do you get to be the best human you can be?  A good question when there are no external parameters for measurement.  Let's take my friend above.  As the conversation continued, she asked me if I wanted to have an impact on our community.  Basically the answer is no.  She asked didn't  I see injustices that needed to be righted.  Again the answer is no.  But what about the lack of gun control, rights to abortion, election gerrymandering?  Surely there must be something that I saw as wrong and in need of a fix.  Again the answer is no.

In general I see things from two different perspectives at a time.  On the one hand there is the human me who has passions, opinions and desires.  On the other hand there is thing I call LIFE that created what I know of as the world, universe, me.  The world is so complicated and extraordinary that I can't help but subordinate myself to this great intelligence.  Anything that it created must be okay and it doesn't need my puny little input to right a preceived wrong.

That's not to say that I don't feel compelled to act or create, but the source of the action doesn't come from a desire to right some perceived wrong but rather to be the best human I can be.

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