WHAT MATTERS MOST

Let’s skip over every ones political dispositions and cut to the chase about what matters most. It’s not my intention to kick the hornets nest. Everything that follows is the result of what I feel to be spiritually sound; love being what matters the most in our lives. We humans are social creatures who need each other. We all want love. We all want to be free from suffering. That is a universal desire that all human beings can relate to.

Putting compassion into action is a basic tenant of all the world’ religious views. There is not a single scripture written that doesn’t urge people to be more compassionate to one another. Altruism is at the heart of all spiritual practice. However, that does not give religious people exclusive rights to serve others. There are plenty of philanthropists out there who aren’t deeply religious just as there are religious leaders out there who scam the poor. Human greed being just as prevalent as compassion. That’s due largely to the fact that one can’t exist without the other.

All the division in the world stems from a place of ignorance. We think that we are more/less important than the people around us. We value self preservation and champion those who rise above our “status” and attain great wealth. We liken storehouses of material possession with our value as human beings. This is the socially acceptable norm. Once we collectively decide to attach our self worth to objects we have forgotten that it’s people that matter the most.

Ask the person on their deathbed how much comfort they take in their vast wealth. Chances are they are more concerned with the legacy behind the wealth. Families carry on tradition and use that storehouse of money to continue building that legacy. So even then the emphasis is on their loved ones. It’s the people they were thinking about.

Now, I promised you I’d tie in ignorance and I won’t disappoint. How many family names are tarnished by the dark nature of their wealth? I’m not just talking about bootleggers whose grandchildren became President. Think about the ones who squeeze out a countries natural resources while it’s citizens starve without basic human needs. The CEO who hikes up the cost of a medication his clients depend on- killing quite a few of them in the process- to appease their shareholders.

We can all stand in judgement of these families and turn up our noses but that means we’re missing the point. We are no better for having not been corrupted by greed than they are for accumulating wealth. The second we see the world in terms of rich and poor, or black and white we are cutting ourselves off from others. We add value to the former and despise the latter and love doesn’t divide. Love understands. Love looks passed the political agendas and philosophies of the day. Love is desired by one and all. Every single human being wants to be cherished by the people around them.

The needs of the few could never outweigh the needs of the many. No matter how much we rationalize- come up with a socially acceptable reason for socially unacceptable behavior- we can’t deny our ignorance. We cannot provide for our loved ones by causing others to suffer without experiencing suffering ourselves. To sacrifice our time to build for our families takes us away from our families. Our children end up loving the things we provided instead of us because we used people to provide them things.

It’s not that we’re bad people, we’re just nearsighted. My solution is simple. We need to start awakening to just how interconnected we all are as a species. It’s a simple exercise of awareness. Note the device in your hand right now- or the laptop before you- and think. Where did you buy it? Do you remember the sales rep? Was it a pleasant experience? Some of us interact with people without offering a second thought as to what their hopes and dreams are. We do so out of ignorance. We feel so independent in our lives we forget all the people who make it happen. We forget it took a sales rep, a stocker, a driver, a manufacturer and a development team to put that device before us. Never mind how many countries are involved in the mass production of our technology. It’s enough to focus on the local scene to realize how many people we are dependent upon just to share this moment.

Love is what brought us all together. Love is what prompted me to write and what prompted you to read. Love for our families has prompted us to utilize so much creative energy it is unreal. What if we broadened our view of family and set out to provide for our entire human family? What would a love like that be capable of?

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