You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty. – Mohandas Gandhi
There is much which is impure in the ocean. After all, they don’t have bathrooms for the fish do they? Yet the water is still good. It is the same with humanity.
What does that mean?
To me, this is a beautiful quote. It reminds us to stay focused on the good of humanity, as it far outweighs all the terrible things humans have done.
The quote compares the entirety of humanity to the enormity of the ocean. As a few drops of dirty water has no measurable impact on the cleanliness of the ocean, neither does a few bad people taint the entirety of humanity.
Yes, it’s easy to be upset if you have been wronged, and you can easily lose faith in humanity. However, if you can keep a sense of perspective, if you can remember that the good outnumber the evil, you can start to feel better about yourself and humanity.
Until humanity can manage to move to the next level, we will continue to have people who are not exactly the kindest or nicest, right? But how we view our fellow man is our choice. If we chose to focus on the bad, we will greet each other with suspicion. If we focus on the good, we will greet each other as friends.
Why is focusing on the good important?
First, realize this isn’t a ‘rose colored glasses’ scenario. There are wolves out there. There are bad people who will do bad things. We must be cautious and prepared. However, we must also be willing to give others a chance.
If we can focus mainly on the good that people do, we will be most of the way there. However, the newspapers, the TV, and the radio tend to focus on the bad things that people do. That can eat into our trust and make the ocean look far dirtier than it truly is.
Some people are oil slicks, but even in the ocean, even the biggest oil slicks are tiny compared to the vastness of the ocean. That’s not a good reason to dump oil in the ocean, but the analogy holds for people. Even if you put a bunch of the bad apples in one place (perhaps massive corruption or gangs), it’s still just a drop or two in the ocean.
We will see what we look for. If we look for bad people, we will see every little thing, and our faith in humanity will be shaken. Make sure you keep a little perspective when you are consuming news, and remember to focus on the good parts, not just the bad.
Where can I apply this in my life?
As was stated before, two of the largest influences on your view of humanity are going to be your personal experiences, and the news. The news tends to focus on the exceptional, which is, unfortunately, usually negative in nature. Exercise caution regarding how often you drink from that well.
Your personal experience is a matter of focus as well. It is quite normal to be very sensitive about what happened to you, and for quite some time. I would urge you to seek professional help to get past the worst of the experience, and begin to see the world with new eyes again.
While you see with the eyes of a victim, everyone will appear to be at least part wolf. While time can heal you, professional help can make this healing occur much more rapidly and more easily. Healing yourself is the first step in seeing the clean water, and not just the dirty water.
That may have sounded a bit ominous, but we’ve all been wronged by others, the only difference is the severity and how much time has passed since the last incident (or most sever incident). The healing of oneself is a crucial step, and one we should all attend to at some point. And no, ‘forgetting’ it isn’t healing, right?
Healing won’t be instant, and there is no need to wait for healing to be complete before we begin to focus on what we focus on, right? Consider what you might have for prejudices (or pre-judgements) of others. Is there a certain style of clothes that immediately cause you concern?
That’s a trick question, as there are times when that is a valid sign of danger. However, it is the clothing in conjunction with other clues that should signal danger, the clothes alone should not. It can be kind of tricky, but it goes back to focus and the clean water compared to the drops of dirty water.
Where else in your life to you have a tendency to pre-judge others, to believe the worst instead of the best? Yes, you’ll get burned a few more times if you treat them kindly. But what is the alternative? Do you really want to live the rest of your life suspecting everyone of being the dirty drops polluting the ocean?
I know that I don’t want to live that way. Be cautious, but have a little faith!
From: Twitter, @TheQuoteToday
confirmed at : http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/m/mahatmagan150710.html
Photo by jurvetson
