Last week, I telephoned an old friend to catch up after quite a few months. After the usual pleasantries, she mentioned how fed up she was of people and how she had lost her faith in humanity. I probably got her on a bad day, as usually she is very open, giving and kind towards other people.
She mentioned the shootings in the American university campus and how horrible it all was. I let her say her bit, but suggested that ultimately everyone has goodness in them – we just have to look for it. But I am not sure she was convinced.
Coincidentally, the very same day, I received a magazine in the post with these words on the front cover:-
“Human greatness does not lie in wealth or power but in character and goodness. People are just people and all people have faults and shortcomings, but all of us are born with basic goodness”
These words were written by Anne Frank in her diary, dated 26th March 1944. If a young girl hiding in a cupboard for years can see the basic goodness in other people, surely so can we all.
2007 marks the 60th anniversary of the publication of Anne Frank’s diary. Nearly 40 million copies of Anne’s diary have been published in 66 languages.
Anne’s diary continues to be one of the world’s most inspirational books and is a universal plea to humanity to demonstate humanity.
It is up to us all to start by showing more consideration, compassion and humanity towards all those people in our life, and also to those people who we interact with everyday and who make our lives so rich and worthwhile.
So let us all start today 🙂
Yes, the determination to see all the good we can with those we encounter in our normal, everyday settings is one that I believe it is good to cultivate. Choosing to be on the lookout for cherished values, kind and helpful actions, and compassion shown in various forms is certainly a worthwhile task.
And yet, in my opinion, it is also valid to recognize patterns of behavior in people that bring pain to others in a variety of forms as we put things into practice like the article mentioned and the thoughts that I’ve noted above. We strive for “the good” and work hard to stand against “the bad” in whatever ways we can.
It’s that word again: “balance.”
We can — and should, I believe — always affirm, encourage, point out and honor so many good things, good people and good organizations in the world.
Have a blessed day,
Lee
Lee, thanks for sharing your wise and encouraging words:-)
I just love your closing statement:-
“We can — and should, I believe — always affirm, encourage, point out and honor so many good things, good people and good organizations in the world.”