You want to be a macho? Try being a hero to those who don't have your capabilities. If you feel the need to prove how tough you are then show it by being a defender of some honorable thing that would make your mother or father proud. Being a bully or an ass is not anything worthy of proof as to showing how tough one can be. Making sacrifices to stand up for others is however. A quiet steeliness to go about the living of one's life in making all of life something just a little bit more bearable is enough. There are enough of us out there to make a huge difference in our society and in our world through example. We don't need to flex our muscles in a vain attempt to elevate ourselves. What we need is to flex the muscles between our ears and wisely and efficiently effect change for the better. Is there a better calling out there for us than to protect the weakened and the innocent? There are many uncaring sociopathic types out there who are bent on taking advantage of the weak and innocent. These greedy ones need to be stopped when they practice their twisted strategies and we who are strong and willed enough are the ones to do it. We can only do this though if we are willing to get out of ourselves enough to care about what is going on around us. I have my desires and obligations I need to see to but I also have time to care about what is going on around me. This is the time I can and do spend confronting the wrongs too many cynically pass along as the way that things are done. Enough of the rot that has been allowed to come forward with us into enlightened and modern democratic thinking. Instead of us just gambling our lives on endless overseas battlefields, let's gamble our lives on our home ground and defend the honorable ideals of democracy we stand for while protecting the weak and the innocent.
1 comment:
Bravo Carl, you speak my thoughts boldly and wonderfully. Thinking about this reminds me of the following words, "Be generous in prosperity, and thankful in adversity. Be worthy of the trust of thy neighbor, and look upon him with a bright and friendly face. Be a treasure to the poor, an admonisher to the rich, an answerer of the cry of the needy, a preserver of the sanctity of thy pledge. Be fair in thy judgment, and guarded in thy speech. Be unjust to no man, and show all meekness to all men. Be as a lamp unto them that walk in darkness, a joy to the sorrowful, a sea for the thirsty, a haven for the distressed, an upholder and defender of the victim of oppression." Baha'u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, U.S. Baha'i Publishing Trust, 1990, p. 285
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