the truth that binds us all
(although i'm trying to keep from blogging today) the thought just occurred to me that we, as humans, have little trouble connecting with other humans. imagine the extreme scenario where we're stuck on an island with one other person - would we not soon become best friends? would we not find a connection between us? and really, it is only a matter of space and time....
what i mean is - if we imagine that in some space or time (especially the future that we know nothing of) we can imagine ourselves in connection with another human - any other human, no less, does that not speak great volumes of the deep connection that we all share with each other? does this realization, this potential truth, not then naturally aid us in building more compassion, more empathy towards each other? and in fact, with one and all?
for those of us who need it, i think this might give the additional incentive to be kind and just to one and all. to treat with love everyone who we know and do not know. it could only do us good.
no?
what i mean is - if we imagine that in some space or time (especially the future that we know nothing of) we can imagine ourselves in connection with another human - any other human, no less, does that not speak great volumes of the deep connection that we all share with each other? does this realization, this potential truth, not then naturally aid us in building more compassion, more empathy towards each other? and in fact, with one and all?
for those of us who need it, i think this might give the additional incentive to be kind and just to one and all. to treat with love everyone who we know and do not know. it could only do us good.
no?
3 comments:
:) This reminds me of an interesting rule of thumb we were taught at a negotiation class. The golden rule was to never lie or cheat the person you are bargaining with (yeah duh! right?)and also to leave some room for generosity, i.e., don't suck everything possible out of a deal. Most people still were prone to doing that under the assumption that this was going to be their last ever interaction/negotiation with the other party, so all they should care about is getting the best possible deal, for themsleves alone, but need not bother about PR.
The truth is, and the class tricked students into this to make the point, we never know when or where our paths will cross again, and how we are tied togteher through a network of people, all of humaity if you will. So while, we try to reach an optimal goal for ourselves perosnally, we must also interact in way that builds trust and engenders further interaction.
If one were to extend this to an eternal life-span of beings changing forms over this course, it just makes sense for each of us to interact in only the most kind, truthful and considerate fashion with everybody, for their own good as well as for our own.
thanks much for your comment, aa. i've thought about this a lot - how our conduct may be colored by our belief that we may never deal with this person again.
as i spend many afternoons at a cafe i used to be at daily 6 years ago, i thought about this. about how this thread that binds us never really, permanently breaks. just in the short frame of time that we can see (with the shallow depth of field that we have), we believe that this is the be all and end all of our linkage.
as life reminds us repeatedly of how wrong we are, we should shun this tendency and try not to let it affect our conduct.
all we need to do is understand the repeated prisoner's dilemma problem :)
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