Saturday, September 30, 2017

Doing It For Them Or For Us

Sadly enough, most of our lives are contingent on what we think other people think of us, rather than on improving what we already know about ourselves.  Our initial intent is to help others, but not long after having become doctors, lawyers, preachers, teachers, and other career minded individuals, our major focus becomes to do what others, especially those in authoritative positions, say is the right way to do what we do.

Let’s take educators for instance. We start off being dedicated to educating our students, by sharing with them all the knowledge, life lessons and wisdom we have attained. As time goes by however, and our admimistrators pressure us for better test scores and increased achievement results, we sucuumb to adhereing as best we can to the academic status quo. We already know that our salary and career advancement is greatly influenced by how well we conform to the standards that are in place, and we become so successful in suppressing and relinquishing our own ideas and intentions, that our conformity to the expectations of others becomes second nature.

It’s not just educators of course. It’s all of us who, subconsciously perhaps, support the selfish intententions of a society that was established by the few and is supported by the many. We have become so caught up in doing things in the way they’ve always been done, that we ignore the viable alternatives that may be more beneficial than the outdated concepts we have been trained to adhere to.

Having been continually indoctrinated with the notion that life is based on doing things either right or wrong, and that doing what we’ve been told to do is right, we forget that the righteousness that stems from loving one another is achieved through trial and error, and it supercedes both right and wrong. We’re going to make mistakes, which does not make us wrong if our intent is pure. We’re going to accomplish things as well, which does not make us right, but hopefully inspires ourselves and others to do even more.

There are two stories that may help to put things in perspective. The first is about the little girl who asked her mother and grandmother why they cut off the end of the pot roast before cooking it. They both said because it’s how her great grandmother did it and that it’s the right way for it to be done. Upon asking her great grandmother however, she found out that she did it because the roasting pan was too small.

The second story is about how all the animals watched as the tiny hummingbird flew down to the river to fill it’s little beak with water and flew back, time after time, to spit it on the raging jungle fire. When told by the huge elephants and hippos that she would never put the fire out she responded “Well I’d rather do something about it than just watch it burn. 

Let’s not just adhere to what we’re told is the right thing to do, let’s do all we can, while we can, until righteousness is the outcome.


I’ll holla…


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