Happy New Year! It’s the start of a new year, the beginning of a new decade, and the world has been wiped clean of human suffering and injustice. In truth, we are no different today than we were yesterday. But we like to believe that things will be different. For some reason, the calendar changing from one year to the next always brings us hope. Why?
Hope isn’t a magical potion delivered to us on a silver platter. Hope springs from the actions of people. Hope is the result of having made hard choices for the greater good of all, not just the enrichment of a few or the one. Hope is waking up in the morning and wondering what you can do to make the world around you a better place. Hope is hard work and sacrifice. Hope is giving and caring without any expectation of personal gain. Hope is the courage to think independently while ignoring the self-satisfying allure of groupthink. Hope is every person on this planet deciding to make a difference in the world, beginning with his or her own actions.
I ask the same questions at the beginning of each new year. Will we ever cast aside the unrealistic personal belief that we are, somehow, better than another individual or group? When will we stop thinking about our own short-term needs and start thinking about the needs of future generations?
As individuals, we need to progress from who we are to who we can be. We need to do this not only for a greater sense of personal accomplishment but because, collectively, humanity will benefit from our progression. We may not be able to correct every incidence of suffering and injustice by our actions, but inaction is not the answer because the countdown clock is ticking, and time may be running out.
I will close as I end each of these blogs — You’re not just a human being; you are a representative of the human species.
The Writer
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