Ask YOURSELF!

In the shadows of memory do we truly ever learn as humans?

A tragedy happens and we hide it behind the rhetoric of power seekers. We get enmeshed in the emotions of the flag wavers; the holier than thous; the haters and the fearful.

And the lessons to be learned get totally obscured in the resultant cacophony.

Humanity has lost its way. And seems determined to stay lost.

What is truly important? I can not answer that question for another. I can only answer it for myself. But many think that their answers are the correct ones, and feel so strongly about it that they try to force it on others. And oh so many of us meekly set aside our own thoughts if those answers are pushed on us hard enough. We give others the power over our own lives with such ease. Why is this?

So I ask again. What is important? Is it the things we own? The morals we lay claim to? Is it power over others? Giving? Taking? Is it the place we live in? The words of our supposed betters? The laws we live under? Is it what makes us different or what makes us the same? Is it hatred or love? Maybe it is none of these. Or some combination of many.

Endings or beginnings?

As I said, I can not answer for another. We need to ask ourselves these questions and answer for ourselves.

Sometimes it is hard. Very hard. It is sooooo much easier to let someone else answer for us. Especially if they seem sure in their answers.

But what if they are wrong? Or at least what if their answers are wrong for us? Then what happens?

Look at the world around us and you will see.

I make a suggestion I have made before. It is the core of my belief system, and in my mind the key to humanity’s ultimate survival as a species.

Sincerely ask yourself what is important to you. Do it in the quiet of your own mind. Put away words written in the distant past; words that have passed through a gauntlet of years and the personal interpretations of billions of OTHER people. Put away the rhetoric of the self-important and the power-hungry. Put away fear and ignorance. Block out the cacophony. Just quietly ask yourself “What is truly important?”

You may be surprised at the answer. Or maybe you won’t be. But I believe that if everyone did this for themselves, we would find that more of us agree than disagree. We will find ourselves doing what is truly healthy for humanity as a whole, and thus ourselves as individuals. The answers may not work for some. Those who place individuals as more important than community will surely find different answers. But that is the path we follow now, and in my mind it is a path of destruction.

Once again I suggest, that we all just stop for a moment and …

THINK FOR OURSELVES!

I firmly believe that is the path of hope