Reality is much more complex than any judgement of right and wrong, good or bad, us and them, encourages you to believe.

When you seriously contemplate the ethical, spiritual, social and economic and psychological forces that shape individuals, you will see that most people’s choices are not based on a desire to do wrong or create hurt.

Instead, people’s choices are based on what they are familiar with and what worldviews are available to them.

I believe that most people are doing what they do, to meet their needs. And given the information they have received, the way they are feeling, the circumstances they find themselves in, and what problems they are facing, they are doing the best they can.

Some of our choices may be misguided or ill conceived or just plain habitual, but most of us are muddling through trying to get our needs met with little awareness of what we are actually doing, thinking, feeling and creating.

When I remember this, it is so much easier to be compassionate. It is easier to see everyone in a kinder, softer way.

I don’t have to turn others into someone I am against; someone who becomes a kind of enemy or threat. Instead everyone becomes a fellow traveller along the way. A traveler whose story is one that I don’t know and haven’t lived. A traveller who has a shared humanity in undiscovered and surprising ways.

Categories: Other