Today I was finally taking the time to look through MakesMeThink.com and cried more times then I can count. I submitted my own, regarding the loss of my grandfather (I've yet to see if it will be put on the site, if it does, please do not link my blog to it.) Each of them made me stop and think about life and, many of them made me think about mortality-I had seen a few of them on this site which is run by the same people who run MMT. I made a post on Facebook regarding mortality and the value of not just our lives but those around us, however, I thought I should make a blog post.
So many people stop each day, feeling weak and helpless. We call out for help, and some get it, some don't. Some are happy they got their help, and some curse those who didn't help them, feeling abandoned.
Now stop and think about something for me.
How many times have you driven down a freeway, expressway, highway, etc. and seen someone broken down on the side of the road and just drove on past? How many times have you seen someone sitting alone in a public place looking absolutely distraught and thought nothing of it? I'm not saying that you shouldn't ask for help, this is not an angry rant (or at least I don't plan it to be). My point is that we tend to expect people to pick up on our problems and help without asking. The problem is that not everyone is as intuitive as we give them credit for, and some people just don't feel comfortable delving into others problems unless asked to. There are those kind souls like the ones you see on Makes Me Think that either step in or witness others stepping in and helping others, however we should not expect them-or at least, not at this point of man's level of coexistence.
I myself would like to start a movement, though I doubt my blog has enough of a following for it to take off. This kind of thing has been done before for a day or two, but instead of giving it a single shot and hoping it sticks, why don't we keep doing it?
Get together with friends and go to a very popular public location and just compliment people that walk past your group. You have no idea how uplifting it is to hear a stranger just compliment you on something-anything! Stop and help people in need, not because you expect to get a favor from them, but because it's the right thing to do.
We live in a world where one hundred reasons to like a person are overwhelmed by a few reasons to hate them. So let's stop looking at how we're different, see how we're alike. Cherish those similarities rather then damning the differences.
There is one similarity to remember and that is that we are all human. It doesn't matter what color our skin is. It doesn't matter if we are attracted to men, women, both, or neither. It doesn't matter if we worship God, Allah, Gaia, or nothing at all. We are all human, and there are two people that I'd like everyone to keep in mind: John Lennon, and John M. Perkins.
John Lennon was one of the greatest peacemongers this world has ever seen. His song Imagine speaks of his dream, for all of mankind to be equal in each others eyes, and to share the world with one another. John M. Perkins is a black man who grew up in Mississippi during the nineteen-forty's and left the state after his brother, Clyde, was fatally gunned down by a police officer. Despite his past he now urges everyone to love one another-and not just to love the oppressed, but the oppressor as well, for all of us are equal in spirit and life.
So let's start loving one another, look out for everyone around you. They may be nothing to you, but they're someone's child. That man you saw broken down on the side of the road could be on their way to hold his wife's hand as she gives birth, or to hold a loved one as they take their last breaths.
That woman sitting alone in a park or in a diner crying may have just watched her lover fly off to go to war, or lost her child in a school shooting, but you'd never know.
You don't have to give them your kidney or your life's savings, but the time of day is usually all it takes to get people feeling better. Knowing that someone cares enough to listen to you pour your heart out is a wonderful feeling. Even if you never see or hear from that person again, you did something good that will help that person get through their day. Cherish that feeling.
Reading all those pages of stories, and thinking about the impact that a single act of random kindness can have MMT
With teary eyes, and warmth in my chest,
Alex the Foxboy
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