When did it become cool not to care?
When did it become embarrassing to feel? To feel in love, to feel excited, or scared or hurt or any number of the feelings most of us suppress and hide from the world and ourselves.
We are the age of online relationships. Of Facebook. Our interactions no longer require real connection, but then surely we must ask if these interactions can still be considered part of any kind of meaningful relationship at all?
Our uniqueness as a species lies in our ability to empathise and imagine, yet these are the very traits we are encouraged to measure and control. We cant be too imaginative, one needs to be realistic about life, and to be too empathetic could lead to one being seen as a push over. So although these are still regarded as “good” traits, we are taught early on to use them wisely and with reservation.
Why?
Why are we not taught to be compassionate and good? Why are we not taught to love? Why are these traits not held above all others when young minds are given their first impressions of what life could be?
We spend our time competing with one another, constantly judging and demeaning those around us to try and make up for the void of loneliness and disconnection that our evolution from feeling has created.
So our lives are spent in search of movie moments, not realising those scenes are based on a level of connection seldom seen in modern society.
I don't want to live in a world where people are conditioned to constantly out play one another, where strength is seen as the ability to disconnect, where the one who cares the least wins.
I want to feel everything.
I want to feel as much as I possibly can, in every way and I acknowledge the risks in doing so. Feeling is a double edged sword but I’ll take the bad to have the good, to really live as uplifted and enlightened a life as I possibly can.
When I think of success, I think of people and love and peace and happiness. That’s my version. Because as far as I can tell, that’s really the point of it, of us as a species. Our real truth is connection, and love, and compassion. But we have replaced those ideals with greed, and fear, and control.
I want to believe in miracles, I want to believe that everything happens for a reason, that what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, that people are inherently good, that we are creatures of love playing a small role in the universe’s theatre. If that makes me naive then I gladly accept the title.
If to be naive means to live with hope and love and compassion then I pray for more naive people. More people willing to see the good in others, the grandeur of the universe and the infinite smallness of themselves. We need more people like that.
So I live my life aspiring to connect with people deeply, letting compassion pave the way for understanding as we manage our shared human condition. Knowing that love is our end and our beginning.
So I love. Fully and with out reservation, I am vulnerable and wide open. And I encourage you to try to open your heart little by little, allowing the inherent beauty of life to inspire you, letting the fundamental truth of goodness be your guide.
