"Who says people don't care?" my spouse said to me. I had suggested the reason nothing changes in Puerto Rico is because people just don't care. My response was typical:
Why don't people care *enough*?
It became very clear that the limitations of my own understanding were being exposed. Can you predict what the next response was?
Who says people don't care *enough*?
They do care enough to take action. However, caring enough to take the action, and actually doing the action is the "chasm" in our lives. The chasm we "perceive" is endlessly deep, and impossibly wide. Leaders and the bold see it as smaller, but still existing. And the hopeless see it as infinite.
It appears uncrossable because we think we can't jump over it (or climb to its bottom). It seems hopeless. But we are people. Our minds have allowed us to "jump" over rivers and cut through mountains with bridges and roads even here in Puerto Rico. No insect has ever done that, not even the biggest swarm of locusts have carved away mountains. And yet "no one person" acting alone has done that either.
We have unlimited vision in our individual minds, and we have unlimited capabilities when we come together. We can jump the divide from the face of the Earth to the Moon, Mars, and even outside of our tiny system of planets.
Consider the Ant: He does not have a brain like ours, and he does not possess any greater capabilities. While he can lift 8 times his own body weight, we can lift millions of times our own body weight through the devices we create, and trillions of times *his* body weight. 8 times, therefore, is not so impressive after all.
In fact, he has far less capabilities, and lacks creativity. An ant acts very robotic, on auto-pilot, with 3 key rules for survival:
- The Queen is God
- One grain of sand at a time will create the farm
- Remember to eat to survive
People for the most part have a God, and we rarely forget to eat. But we do have difficulty understanding that "one grain at a time" IS the stuff that giant leaps forward are made of!
Imagine the following: See this in your mind. A ladder stands against a golden wall. The ladder is missing 3 rungs at the top. At the top of the wall, you see a glowing light in the most beautiful shade you have ever seen. You instantly know that the meaning of life lies at the top of that wall. Yet the ladder is missing 3 rungs.
Question: Do you add those rungs one at a time to get you to the top, or do you declare it hopeless and not meant to be?
I believe there are few among you who would not try anything in your power just to "fix the simple ladder", because you clearly see the glowing ambiance of the knowledge of life itself lying before you, almost within your grasp. The handicapped or unskilled would quickly recruit others to assist them rather than give up on the opportunity.
From the moment we are conceived all of our capacities are directed at understanding "life itself". And a few rungs of a ladder would not stop us after getting so close. Perhaps we will stare into the face of God himself at the top of that wall, and hear it straight from his mouth.
Why don't we understand the true power of an ant, who moves forward one grain at a time?
Tiny, simple, microscopic actions will help move us forward together for positive, incremental change for the better. Tell a friend, start a blog, write to the newspaper, write to your governor, write to your mayor. Make a donation, join an organization, improve something in your personal life. Give the homeless a sandwich. Pick up a piece of trash. Say hello to a stranger. Say "I love you" to your family members. Say "I believe in you" to your kids. Say it to your friends, and your neighbors. Say "I see a problem here, but we can fix it together".
Do you want to know what was at the top of the wall?
As she climbed the last 3 rungs, her heart raced with a yet unknown feeling of anticipation, feeling as though it would rip from her chest. She lifted her eyes slowly over the edge fearing that the knowledge of life itself could not be seen. Then she saw the object. There, suspended in the light, hovering there without any physical explanation, was a small note written on simple piece of cardboard that looked as though it were torn from a used box. It was surprisingly non elegant in its appearance. She reached for it tentatively, finally grasping it and seeing the writings. The words were in some symbols that appeared to be not of this earth, yet she was surprised to find that she could understand them anyway. This must be the language of life of which we all possess. The words that entered her mind were:
You shall not see my face today. The Meaning of Life is building ladders one rung at a time, and learning over the course of your biological existence to understand that no wall is too high if you keep going. With every step upwards you will feel my presence, yet I will not appear to your eyes. The chasm between "searching for me" and "understanding me" is wide indeed. By building tall ladders, you will eventually possess the tools to cross it. Do not stand still. If standing still were my idea for you, you would be a tree or a stone. But you are among the chosen ones. Do not act alone in your efforts. If acting alone was the true way, I would not have created any of you at all. Just as you have followed this Golden Wall to discover the Meaning of Life, follow the Golden Rule to know the *Method of Life*.
