Humanity Lost
"Making a living and making a life that’s worthwhile are not the same thing. Living the good life and living a good life are not the same thing." (R Fulghum)
Robert Fulghum is one of my favorite writers. OK, to be honest (rarity in my life...both, honesty and the desire to be honest), I do not read much and do not have many writers to choose from so when I say he's my fave, it probably doesn't mean much in the world of people who read 500+ paged books. I tried telling him that as long as his books are easy to read and one does not require to attend an elite school to understand what he's saying, he will not get the "Oooh" appeal or the "Aaah" awards he truly deserves.
In one of his essays, he explains the difference between what you do for a living and what you do to live. Sadly most of us, when asked about what we do, we always talk about what we do to make a living. It is just one of those things. It is a social norm. Imagine what a strange conversation it would be if a person after explaining his life mission of making Snapchat 0.3493 seconds faster to help mankind, asked me what I did for a living and I replied with "I breathe and eat and sit" - it's no coincidence that I chose these three since I am sitting, eating as I write and as far as I can tell, I am breathing. (If not, then I am dead and this is one mindblowing out-of-body experience - also, they lied...I see no tunnel.) If I mentioned these three, the stranger would give me the strangest look and leave.
Our social interactions are so meaningless and almost scripted these days. Let me prove it to you. Ask the next person you meet how he or she is doing. I can bet you that 9 out of 10 times we will hear a "good" or "fine". And in that 1 instance where the person says "Not good" and starts to explain how they are really doing, we lose interest in the first 10 seconds and we start thinking of ways to escape this boring, whiny person. What a waste of a question. If an alien landed on Earth tomorrow and saw us indulging in this moronic greeting, they would be amazed at such a useless practice. If you are thinking that the aliens are already among us, then please know that you are that boring, whiny person.
Kher, this post is not about our cultural norm of asking meaningless questions. It is about how we have stopped caring about one another...yawn...here he goes again...yes, here I go again...and pretty much on my own, it seems. I look around and I find that we are getting increasingly self focused and busy in our own lives. We are always in a rush. I don't know where we are going but we are always so busy. Never have time to help others. Our patience has mysteriously vanished, much like my hairline...OK so there is nothing mysterious about it...my hairline or our patience? Probably both!
I heard two things recently that made me very sad. The first was that each glass of pomegranate juice contains 31g of sugar. What? No wonder I am not losing weight - I had a glass of pomegranate juice a week or so back but after learning it has so much sugar, I have decided to quit. Some people told me that it has good sugar in it and not the bad sugar but who am I to judge and take sides in this battle between sugars. Although I have been assured it was a sweet battle with no bitterness (too corny?). In any case, now I am just having unsweetened water with my daily fix of Big Mac and Fries. Hopefully, my weight will get back under control.
So that was the first thing that made me sad. I miss my pomegranate juice. The second sad thing I heard was when a close friend told me about the time she stopped to help a motorcyclist who had slipped and fallen on the ground. She parked and gave the man some water. While she was doing that, a car pulled up and some guy, assuming she was somehow at fault, yelled at her and drove off. If the person was really that concerned, shouldn't he have gotten out to ask the motorcyclist if he needed help? But then again, without such useless morons in this world, life would get boring...so Thank you, Mr. Potty Mouth Car Driver - keep swearing!
I have met bosses who are so caught up with work that they are unable to take out time to console stressed out subordinates. While I understand work stress and how rushed life has become in the corporate world, I am saddened to hear that we put work ahead of human beings in need. Are we so busy now that we cannot take out 10 minutes to help out a person in need? Are we putting work and success ahead of humanity? Or is it that we are now commodities in our jobs and if we slow down, another corporate slave would step in and take our place.
Another friend who has done extremely well by corporate standards once told me that he had stopped enjoying the little things he used to take pleasure in and that he had no patience for people who could not keep up with him. He used to be such a fun person. Single minded pursuit of corporate success does that to us. It kills our ability to empathize.
And it is not just in the cutthroat corporate sector. I have met teachers and professors who just want to teach and not have to deal with the emotional needs of students. I have heard academics refuse to participate in activities that do not contribute to their promotion. Wasn't this one of the noble professions? When did we lose sight of our goal and turn into mercenaries?
The world becomes a sad place when people put money and careers ahead of others. We value our time in terms of dollars & cents and not in terms of the positive impact we have on society. I find it hard to understand why we would not be willing to spend a little time to help others despite work pressures. But then, maybe there is some wisdom to what Fulghum said. We are reaching out for THE good life and not a good life. Humanity is dying - try to come to the funeral...unless you are busy with work.
"You know the world is headed for hell. Say your goodbyes if you've got someone you can say goodbye to." - K Cook, P Ducette
Save Humanity-ly,
4Rookie