Uneventful day, so I’m going to ramble
Posted on May 18, 2006 - Filed Under And your point is?
A couple of months ago, a friend of mine said something that made me stop and think. He talked about how if you stop and really look at something, you often see something about it you never did before. I thought that was a really beautiful idea and one which goes along with the Buddhist mindset.
Today, I was watching a slight rain fall. The drops were coming down on the concrete patio outside. Watching this happen, it occurred to me that we, as humans, are like raindrops. Each drop is so random, falling in no predetermined path or predestined location. The length of its perservance, or how long it soaks the spot where it landed, is determined by forces completely outside of its control–the heat of the surface, the location of the sun, the relative humidity in the air. Nevertheless, regardless of how short the ‘life’ of a raindrop might be, it still has impact and influence. And so it is with us. Some would suggest nothing about people is random, that each of us has a destiny or that a particular deity is shaping the direction our lives will take. But it seems to me that all of human life is random. I was born in Pennsylvania, seized the opportunity to attend and graduate from college, and now have a decent and happy life. Yes, the actions I took as a person in possession of free will were my own, but the fact I began my life in a situation where those choices were even available to me in the first place had nothing to do with anything I did. I could just as easily have been born in Uganda and been forced to become a child soldier, not knowing from day to day where food would be found and whether I would be alive to try and find it.
My point? I take so much for granted and, by doing so, act so ungratefully. The life I have, the fundemental opportunities I have had and will continue to have, are a gift, things I did not work for or even request. Also, regarding impact and influence, I think it important to recognize that, without even trying, I have a great deal of both. My consumption of resources taxes the Earth but my personality hopefully contributes positively to the lives of those around me. And so it goes, in an endless stream of quid pro quo. But this is where the analogy falls apart, where the raindrop and the human diverge: Nature has a way of balancing itself but we can’t see that as wisdom. We want, want, want and by doing so, increase our negative impacts and decrease our positive influences.
If I pray in this life, let it be one of my chief utterances that I may be able to achieve that sacred balance, taking no more than I give, influencing just as profoundly as I impact.
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