I find myself sometimes in life wondering what's real. I
have real deep contemplations in my head thinking about what just happened.
What is real? What is going on? How did I get here? When I die, how does it all
go? Am I on a TV show that other people watch? You know, just thoughts.
When you really break things down, every person in the world
might have these thoughts. There's also the thoughts of how did I get where I'm
at while others are where they are. For instance, if you're someone that's
living in an impoverished neighborhood and you're going through violence, but
you turn on the TV and you see people sitting at a dinner table in a nice
suburban neighborhood, you're probably wondering how the fuck did that happen?
And then some of those people in those suburban
neighborhoods probably turn on the TV and see someone like the Kardashians
living the luxurious life, wondering how come I have to bust my ass working 40
hours a week along with my wife just to provide for a family of four.
Then there's the other one that some people don't think
about: those people that are living the rich and luxurious life who can't go
out to get a bite to eat without people talking to them, going up to them.
Finding it very difficult to have any kind of privacy in their life whatsoever.
Moving along, you think about people that get into the
nation's work, if you will. They become police officers, firefighters, armed
forces, and even politicians because they feel like everything's for the
greater good, and yet they see so many people disparage them because of
decisions one or two people in their world have made.
You see, having the ability to look at what everyone's going
through and seeing the difficulties is a very difficult thing, especially when
you're going through your situation and you feel like it's tough. It's so easy
when you are just a common man to see that a negotiation goes wrong and, like
we'll say in pro wrestling, say "fuck that guy, they make a lot more money
than me and they're bitching about not making more." Maybe they need to
make more, because maybe they have a family member that's dying of something
and they need to pay for the hospice.
And probably the most damning: we are walking around,
breathing, no complications, and we bitch about problems like the cable went
out, our car broke down, someone doesn't like me. Yet there are people who have
life-debilitating illness where they can't do those things without the help of
machines or tools, or maybe someone has a week to live due to a terminal
illness.
The point of the story is you never know what someone's
going through. And we always talk about this like it's something you find on a
matchbook or a Hallmark card. And I feel like we do things like this because we
wanna make ourselves feel better or look better. One of the two. It's not just
living by it. You see, there are people who actually do live by it and can
still bitch about their own lives and look sideways at others who might have
better experiences than they do.
However, the truth in the matter is every person in this
life bleeds red and breathes the same oxygen that everyone else does. We all
live on this planet together. We all try to do things together, whether we like
it or not. Everything on the planet runs with everybody's help. Grass grows.
Trees bloom. Buildings get destroyed. The environment suffers. Everything that
we do is humanity. We do it together. And we can tell each other "don't do
that," but everyone is living their own individual story, and because they
are, they might choose differently than you would.
In order to form a worldwide community that actually works,
we have to meet everyone where they're at, and we have to understand why people
fight the battles that they do. It's like that in a yoga studio, because a lot
of yoga studios want you to bring in your good vibes. But the truth of the
matter is a lot of us who do yoga aren't doing yoga because we want good vibes.
We wanna get through our shit. So that's a perfect example of how a community
has to work together, to welcome each other in no matter where they might be in
their life. Someone could be the biggest Oscar the Grouch asshole, and you
still have to show that person love and not try to change them.
If we want to change, the only thing we can do is change
ourselves, and hopefully we inspire change by changing ourselves. It's
difficult to have that kind of faith. It's difficult to just let go that way,
especially if we feel like we can help people because of our experiences.
I will say the first step is look at yourself honestly and
say, what can I do today?
The rest will come in time.
Good luck, have fun, don't die.
NMF
M
