Is It Too Much to Ask?

Is it too much to ask that each of us appoint ourselves a committee of one and do one kind thing each day? Start with your children, your spouse, your partner, your co-workers. Few of us will have an impact on life at the global level, but all of us can affect our families, our friends, and our communities. We all have the gift of life on this one planetary ship. Our lifetimes are short and none of us will get off this ship alive. Can we not respect each other as fellow members of the one human species that inhabits Earth? You do not have to love a person to respect him or her. We all share the human condition. We are all fellow travelers on the journeys of our lives. What a wondrous gift this is, but some people live as if they hate the fact they were born and try to make life as miserable as possible for others. Years ago my mentor, well known attorney Morris Ernst, the person who helped me get my first book published, said there are no big things in life. There is only trivia. But if we tend to the trivia in positive ways, the effects are cumulative and can make profound differences. Being kind is easy: smile at a child, call a friend, touch the hand of a person in pain, speak out against injustice, have real face-to-face conversations, not just text messages. Our country is reeling from pain. We need to connect, to listen to each other, to stop playing the blame game and try to understand each other and find solutions together.