Do you ever find it difficult to love other human beings?  Not in a romantic sense, that would be a whole other subject matter to explore, more inclined for the therapists couch perhaps than my blog posts.  I simply mean whether you encounter internal struggles to rationalise the actions of another individual, based on their behaviour demonstrating traits quite in contrast to your own (assuming you are somewhat ethically engaged cerebrally).  I dare say it can be quite testing at times, judgement is often passed quite easily upon others (which I find rather disconcerting) but as usual, the lack of empathy demonstrated is because we are passing judgement purely from our own perspective.  We are once again responsive to ego, to the selfish voice in our heads that considers entities outside of ourselves and our own decision-making process as unusual or ‘weird’.  What I am more curious to know is exactly WHAT this synopsis is based upon and how it was formulated in the first place.

I was recently riled by a comment passed in the workplace, whilst perusing photographs of some genuinely affable colleagues of mine.  The comment was a derogatory observation on how one individual ‘chose’ to dress a certain way (based on a unique sense of style that I actually find quite lovely).  Such an openly candid remark troubled me as the critic made no apology afterwards for such a curt observation, which brought me to the point of who are any of us to judge another based purely on their vestments?  It seemed such playground behaviour to be so mean, reverting back to youthful days where the opinion of our peers meant huge acceptance when it was agreeable and such downright misery if not.  We seem to have become rather too comfortable now in our adult world, to initiate careless demolition of characters when we absolutely should NOT.  Whether someone is walking down the street wearing a tailored suit or a bathing suit, it should not raise eyebrows or induce whispering from bystanders either way.  It is such base behaviour to even form debates about another individual’s dress code, particularly when the recent questions of how to rehabilitate a whole country post a calamitous natural disaster has occurred.

It is indeed within moments like these that I consider it a true struggle to fathom my fellow homo-sapiens mind-set.  However, by attempting to justify or rationalise such ridiculous actions myself, I too would then be on the path of judging others when we must in fact take a clear stance to avoid such a destructive course in humanity.  This is when our actions (quite literally) speak louder than words, as rather than join in and support garrulous talk we should in fact disassociate ourselves from it.  Quite often I find myself in the company of people that I perhaps might not choose to spend time with if choice were an option.  We are all victims of this on a daily basis; in the workplace where we earn our keep, using public transport and simply walking along the street.  We are surrounded by multitudes of people from all different backgrounds, ages and experiences, all scurrying about our personal business with the sole aim of survival, one way or another.  Whilst we go about such business though, we should never lose sight of the fact that we are all CONNECTED.  The moment we lose sight that our actions impact somehow on another whether verbal or physical, we are truly lost.  We must not retain this egocentric sense that we are the epitome of all knowledge; that what we eat, drink and dress like is the one true example of how things should be.  The whole idea is absurd and should be cast aside immediately.  No, the way we can and are able to love other human beings is by removing our sense of self entirely, looking upon every individual we meet, young and old, as someone we can learn from and gain further insight into our continued quest for a sense of meaning.

It seems that it is not until we produce our own children that the naturally self-obsessed pattern of thought is lessened, a natural justification to finally consider someone else’s needs rather than our own.  But we are all someone else’s child already, so we should be able to demonstrate care and consideration for a perfect stranger, not just our own flesh and blood.  That’s when we can see how we truly connect to each other, that we are all part of a massive multi-faceted family which is otherwise known as the ‘Human Race’.  In the past I used to ponder on whether I had enough of an ‘opinion’ on certain subjects, preferring to this day to remain reflective and observe others than join in for the ‘sake’ of it.  Much like primates in the jungle, there are those more inclined to scream and beat their chests more loudly than others and I have contented myself to allow them to do so (I assume there is a cathartic release from the expulsion of such hot air).  Once again, it is a simple sense of letting things BE, not trying to conceive the ‘whys’ and ‘wherefores’, just allowing people to liberate themselves in whatever way is most pleasing for them (non-violently mind).  If I am disgruntled in any way because of it, I have only myself to blame as I have permitted the situation to displease me (when in fact I should not be looking to be influenced by it in any particular way).  Detachment is not to be confused by disengagement; it simply means that the outcome should not concern you either way, although you should still be attuned by it.

We must not allow ourselves to fall foul of this modern way of being, that due to the consumerist society we live in that we have any obligation to become part of it and lose sight of the profound curiosity of the unknown we (hopefully) once had.  So before you gaze upon another and question their choice of haircut, lunch preference or particular colour of shoe that day consider this; that one day we die and absolutely NONE of it matters.  What matters is how we connect with each other, what experiences we shared and what laughter we were able to enjoy.  Our brain activity and bodies deserve it and the sooner we explore the possibilities of a more peaceful existence amongst one other, the sooner we have a chance of true contentment.

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