You have the answer to help solve the problems we face.
In the World
Where in the world are you? It’s not perfect. I know you want to change some things about it. But it is beautiful. There is beauty all around us. Nature people, ideas, even our thoughts. When I was flying every week. I enjoyed my time in the airport watching people. People watching is never boring. Some dress up for flying some dress down. You can tell who has lost luggage in the past by how many layers they are wearing. No matter where you are in the world if you are fully present you can see the beauty. This can give your life power. You are powerful. It is your responsibility to use this power.
In your life
Where are you in your life and how are you living it? We are all at some point along our life’s journey. Many of you are just starting with work, life, and families. It is a time for you of expectation, beauty, and challenges. The journey will not always be straight or the road well-paved, but the challenge is yours and what you make of it will be stressful or beautiful.
We all have seen or heard of families that have children with Down’s Syndrome who have included them in their lives and made their families stronger. This is beautiful. But there are others who simply fall apart and are unable to deal with it. This is where stress has won. Regardless of the roadblocks or the roughness of our journey, how we approach it and view it, as a curse or opportunity, will say a lot about your life.
You can only control how you react or respond to your life not what you are handed to deal with. We each have to control our responses by getting to know our minds better. This is the power you have to help make the world better. We are responsible to use our abilities to make the world a better place for all future generations.
In your Mind
This is your most powerful place. Knowing your mind and your self gives you the power to turn negative experiences into positive ones. Having a Downs syndrome child, getting a debilitating disease, working in refugee camps could turn you into a cynical person if you let it. But it doesn’t have to.
Mother Teresa said that “I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love.”. We all have a choice to make. Do we live an enlightened life and leave the world in a better place or do we give in to cynicism?
What you train your mind to handle through meditation and mindfulness, will allow you to see the beauty around you, wherever you are in this shrinking world. Your mind can help you think like an innovator, see an unsolvable problem and ask enough questions until you see a possible solution. Otherwise we will wallow in the cynicism of seeing all the problems and not recognizing that we are the solution.
Solving the problems, you see.
Especially in the United States we once again face man’s inhumanity to his fellow man. We see the resurgence of tribalism, racism and increased economic inequality. These are all huge problems that unfortunately will take generations to overcome.
I went to school as a young boy in Little Rock, Arkansas when the government used troops to escort black students into the school each day to protect them from the racist minded people hurling epitaphs at them. This was necessary to integrate Little Rock High school safely. At that time, I was naïve and thought, “good! we have solved the racism problem.”. But you don’t overcome years of prejudicial influence and upbringing through legislation. People need to learn awareness and the value of all life by themselves.
There are many varied problems in the World for us to consider. We can educate people about them through our writings and encourage them to help find solutions.
Racism and Tribalism may be essentially the same thing. We need to understand that every person is a part of the world, important to me and possibly the next Einstein.
Poverty is a form of economic inequality. We will need to come up with new models for the world government, determine a new way of valuing each individual and providing a living share of the world’s economic wealth to each.
Resettlement Camps are a weeping sore on the side of the world. The treatment of our fellow human beings in this inhumane manner is at best depressing and at its worst a burden we all have to bear.
Meaningful Education in this new interconnected world for everyone is a must. We are privileged to have been able to take the Write of Passage course. Now we need to figure out how to make education available to everyone. You cannot participate in making the world a better place if you don’t have the education to realize that things need to change.
Health services should be available to all. Without healthy people we have to spend large amounts to overcome the burden that is placed on society.
Food, Space and Water are essential to all for survival. Dream big and look for innovative ways to bring these to everyone. As we watch climate change impact all of us we may have to learn to live in a different place, redirect flood waters to dry states and to grow food differently. I don’t know how many of you are science fiction fans, but I recommend you read Soylent Green to help you understand what may be coming if we don’t figure this out
Let the Sunshine in.
You are the sunshine. Your minds are open. The need for solving these difficult problems and others are apparent to you. I don’t expect us to find huge solutions, but it is up to us to bring awareness to those around us. We can never know when the seed we plant will blossom through someone else.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” – Albert Einstein
“Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced.” – James Baldwin
“There is no problem outside of you that is superior to the power within you.” – Bob Proctor
