Friday Philosophy: Kindness

It’s been a tough week with so much financial disaster going on.  At least I suppose it is disaster for some.  Having lived five dozen years, I sort of accept this sort of thing as the periodic consequences of “business as usual.”

The cliche that comes to mind is, “The more things change, the more things stay the same.”  Which is, of course, not really true, except in a truthiness sort of way.  When things change, there is change.  The question is how we, as a society, respond to that change.  Mostly what I have observed is “kicking and screaming.”  There has certainly not been a calm and rational acceptance of change in our society, any more than most people accept substantive change in their own personal view of the world.

But sometimes we have to accept monumental change, or at least the possibility of it, in order to progress as a species.  That there have generally been some negative side-effects to accompany such change is regrettable.  I tend to thing that those negatives often result from those who cannot adjust to the change in a rational, pro-Earth (and all the beings that inhabit this planet) manner.  But the world has never really seemed interested in what I think, it seems, so maybe that’s not all that worthy a subject to pursue.

But I wonder.  I have always wondered.  There is plenty to wonder about.  “What if?”  Isn’t that what separates us from those who are not of our species?  Aren’t we just the beings whom have never been able to stop asking, “What if?”

In a perfect world, perhaps, a world full of people who had the critical thinking skills that humans are capable of possessing but so seldom apply, our What If? moments would lead to positive change for the benefit of the entire Gaean ecosystem.  We wouldn’t be spending so much angst, sturm und drang, and counterproductive effort trying to rescue people who are essentially nothing more than gambling addicts from the inevitable result of their own behavior.  But then, in my perfect world, we wouldn’t spend so much time on these politics games either, where a bunch of lawyers compete in a popularity contest for who gets to “lead” areas of this planet defined by artificial boundaries, boundaries whose sole purpose seems to be to keep us human beings at each others’ throats.

The promise of peace is an illusion as long as we perceive places and people on this planet to be foreign.  Perhaps we will only unify if our species can exist long enough for us to become aware of some other sentient species some elsewhere.  The duality seems to require that in order to become an Us, we must establish a Them.  And isn’t that a shame?

It is also unfortunate that we don’t seem to need those lines carved into our globe to divide us; we do it anyway.  Human beings, or at least Americans, seem all too quick to carve those lines between our communities and families, or even in the social fabric…and sometimes right through the backs of some of the individuals.  We have learned to be way too unkind.

Earlier today, buhdy asked,

It would hold kindness.  Our sense of community would grow rather than diminish, as it has continuously done since I was born.  With a burgeoning growth of the instinct towards kindness would come a lessening of the fear that other people are out to do us wrong which causes us to erect the walls which divide us, would grow the trust that we are all in this together and have the best chance at good lives if we all worked together.

If I knew what magical incantation could turn on that light, I would utter those words.

All I can promise is that I will keep trying.

Gap Kindness Too many words float in the ether ethereal thoughts about what could be about a perfect future hidden by a fractured present lived by wounded people existing unsoundly on a damaged planet silently flogged by the raging insanity of individual greed unkind cuts mysteriously appearing in the decaying flesh of our better natures Turn back the song of sadness of broken dreams and fear And sing your song of gladness so everyone can hear Embrace the kindness in us Emit the unity Together we can win us A better destiny –Robyn Elaine Serven –September 19, 2008