DAY 74 – UNITING AROUND HUMANITY’S ONE COMMON ENEMY: PROBLEMS

Last week I read a post online asking for students at our college to show up at a field near the campus. It stated that we, the youth of the world, are the future and what we do can have a great impact upon what unfolds on this planet. I decided that I will be there as I wanted to find out more about this.

I got there a few minutes late and I could not believe what I saw. There were about five hundred kids standing in a gigantic circle holding hands with one another. In the middle of the circle was a twenty foot high sign on a pole with the word PROBLEMS on it. I proceeded to join the circle and took the hand of a person on my right and someone on my left.

The person who organized this gathering began to speak at the base of the sign. He said the word PROBLEMS is spelled out in giant letters because our ability to have a personally better life and to live in a collectively better world is related to the amount and severity of problems that each of us have. He pointed out that having a gigantic sign twenty feet above us with the word problems on it represents that problems hover over us and does not let us soar. The circle that we formed signifies that we must surround our problems and contain them. In addition, one of the most important points he made was that by holding hands we are united with one another in an effort to do something that eliminates problems that human beings have.

He continues by saying that when problems occur because of something a person does we often think very negatively about such a person and castigate that person for it. In our minds we look down upon people who create problems and rarely if ever separate the person from the problem. By doing this we lose sight that problems are our enemy and not the person who creates them.

He also points out that in an effort not to have problems we have to think about problems from the standpoint of something that no one wants to have. A person does not set out to create problems for himself or herself and often they do not want to create a problem for someone else even though they happen anyway. While we can never get rid of people we can get rid of problems that people have. Problems are our universal enemy.

He winds up his speech by saying that when we think about problems from the perspective of problems as our universal enemy and not the person who has them it will also make us more understanding and sympathetic for the person who has them, whether he or she created them by their actions or just someone who is just going through a particularly difficult time. The more we can understand a person’s situation and sympathize with that individual. the more likely we will try to help them resolve those difficulties.

As I am leaving this event and talking to a fellow student, I now realize that having disdain for the person who creates a problem does nothing to eliminate human problems. By focusing my attention upon eliminating problems I can be more effective in having fewer personal difficulties and be of greater assistance to someone in their time of need.