I am because we are

Happiness. The great illusion. The holy grail. An escape that provides us with everything but freedom. The striving that brings us closer to the end of life without meaning. The goal that makes us buy things we don’t really need, do things we really don’t want to, believe in things that we don’t value and in an extreme way, tricks us to harm others for our own benefit.

I don’t believe in happiness. I believe in value. In truth. In compassion. In knowledge. I believe in society that is good for everyone.

In my ideal future society everyone contributes to the community with their own set of talents, skills, values and passions. It’s a future of builders, storytellers, caretakers, compassionate people who’s needs are interconnected with the needs of others, their values compatible with the values of others and their freedom celebrated with all others.

Good example of our connectedness is Ubuntu, an African philosophy that means:

“I am because we are.”

I’ve found this story that explains the Ubuntu concept:

There was an anthropologist who had been studying the culture and habits of a tribe somewhere in Africa. He had been working in that village for some time, and the last day of his stay, he proposed a game to the children of the village.

He prepared a big basket of fruit and treats from the region and placed it under a tree. He marked a line on the earth a few meters away and instructed the children to run at the count of three, and whoever reached the basket first, would be entitled to enjoy it on his or her own. So the kids did as instructed, but the result came as a surprise to the anthropologist: all the kids ran together, holding hands, towards the basket, and when they reached it, they shared all that was in it.

He asked the children why they had done such a thing when one of them could have gotten the whole basket for him or herself, and a little girl answered: “How can one of us be happy if all the other ones aren’t?”

There is also a beautiful saying on what the world needs. It is often attributed to Dalai Lama, but the real author is David W. Orr. It goes:

“The plain fact is that the planet does not need more successful people. But it does desperately need more peacemakers, healers, restorers, storytellers, and lovers of every kind. It needs people who live well in their places. It needs people of moral courage willing to join the fight to make the world habitable and humane. And these qualities have little to do with success as we have defined it.”

And I hope I can find, connect with and celebrate life with more peacemakers, healers, restorers, storytellers, and lovers of every kind.

This post is part 15. of my 100 Days of Writing Challenge.