I believe we are all individual components of a much larger whole and what hurts you hurts me and vice versa. We can’t even hurt ourselves without hurting everybody else. And in the context of the quote above, apathy and inaction, which allow evil to thrive and grow, are as dangerous as the evil itself. Behind every evil person and act is a crowd of people with their hands in their pockets, looking at the sky, pretending they don’t know or understand what’s going on. Or pretending they’re powerless. Pretending they are not cowards.
So, we hurt each other and ourselves through complacency. The consequence of complacency is everybody suffers. Pretty easy math. (The math of personal responsibility usually is).
BUT
Action is hard and in the face of overwhelming odds, overwhelming hate, overwhelming evil, evil that is so well structured, protected and maintained, you, a mere individual, have no power, no way to fight back, no control. I’d guess we’ve all turned our back on some horror we had no control of. I know I have. I had to! Mental health can become endangered. We can only take so much before our minds tear. So, what can we do?
Be the example.
Be that which you want to see in the world. If it\s change you want, be the change you want. If you want a greener planet, make your part greener. Less mean? Be nicer. War begets war. Love begets love. Not always, not even consistently, maybe. But the results are immaterial. If you want less war, make less wear. Do the next good thing you can do and keep on doing just that. Because just as we hurt others when we hurt ourselves (and vice versa), we help others when we help ourselves. (And I don’t mean helping yourself to the whole tray of crab cakes at the party. What is wrong with you, Ray?) The math is the same. It’s an ecosystem, you see. If we work to keep ourselves healthy, happy, active, and moving, then everyone around us will be effected. And if everyone did this…
Of course, we have to follow rules and a lot of the time the rules prevent us from being our true, wonderful selves. We resent this and go inward and become complacent. We let the world beat the care right out of us. And this is the practice. The way you get better is you practice. You set some small goal, go for it, check your results, adjust and then go again. Until you get good. Until it becomes easy. Then you add weight or distance. You turn up the metronome one click. You add a brick to your backpack. And you go again.
And you go again.
And you go again.
We’ve all heard the words about ignoring the evil as it took everyone around us until it comes for us and there’s no one around to help. Good can work the same way. Hurt people hurt people. Healthy people help people just by being openly, deliberately, brazenly health. Be audaciously healthy. Have a good time.
Being evil is easy. Being complacent is even easier. No motion is what’s happening in the woods most of the time. So, applying time and energy to be good, to improve yourself or your environment, to focus on the good you can control, is an effort. So is getting good at anything. So is achieving a goal. So is resisting the temptations of perverse incentives, easy excuses, and socially reinforced complacency.
Spend your energy here. Be the goodness. It’s worth it. For everybody.
Of course, I write this to myself as much as to anyone else. If I can do that which I know is good...
So, we hurt each other and ourselves through complacency. The consequence of complacency is everybody suffers. Pretty easy math. (The math of personal responsibility usually is).
BUT
Action is hard and in the face of overwhelming odds, overwhelming hate, overwhelming evil, evil that is so well structured, protected and maintained, you, a mere individual, have no power, no way to fight back, no control. I’d guess we’ve all turned our back on some horror we had no control of. I know I have. I had to! Mental health can become endangered. We can only take so much before our minds tear. So, what can we do?
Be the example.
Be that which you want to see in the world. If it\s change you want, be the change you want. If you want a greener planet, make your part greener. Less mean? Be nicer. War begets war. Love begets love. Not always, not even consistently, maybe. But the results are immaterial. If you want less war, make less wear. Do the next good thing you can do and keep on doing just that. Because just as we hurt others when we hurt ourselves (and vice versa), we help others when we help ourselves. (And I don’t mean helping yourself to the whole tray of crab cakes at the party. What is wrong with you, Ray?) The math is the same. It’s an ecosystem, you see. If we work to keep ourselves healthy, happy, active, and moving, then everyone around us will be effected. And if everyone did this…
Of course, we have to follow rules and a lot of the time the rules prevent us from being our true, wonderful selves. We resent this and go inward and become complacent. We let the world beat the care right out of us. And this is the practice. The way you get better is you practice. You set some small goal, go for it, check your results, adjust and then go again. Until you get good. Until it becomes easy. Then you add weight or distance. You turn up the metronome one click. You add a brick to your backpack. And you go again.
And you go again.
And you go again.
We’ve all heard the words about ignoring the evil as it took everyone around us until it comes for us and there’s no one around to help. Good can work the same way. Hurt people hurt people. Healthy people help people just by being openly, deliberately, brazenly health. Be audaciously healthy. Have a good time.
Being evil is easy. Being complacent is even easier. No motion is what’s happening in the woods most of the time. So, applying time and energy to be good, to improve yourself or your environment, to focus on the good you can control, is an effort. So is getting good at anything. So is achieving a goal. So is resisting the temptations of perverse incentives, easy excuses, and socially reinforced complacency.
Spend your energy here. Be the goodness. It’s worth it. For everybody.
Of course, I write this to myself as much as to anyone else. If I can do that which I know is good...