“Covid Can Shrink the Brain as Much as a Decade of Aging, Study Finds;” “State Health Commissioner Issues Declaration of an Imminent Threat to Public Health for Monkeypox Virus;” “Climate Change is hitting the planet faster than scientists originally thought;” “7 killed in wrong-way crash on Illinois Highway;” “Woman dies falling out of police car;” “Death toll rises in Kentucky Floods;” “There have been over 300 mass shootings so far in in 2022.”
These are just a few of the recent headlines that have been available for public view in recent days, and they provide us with a snapshot of the state of life on our planet whether we live in big cities or in rural areas.
When considering the above, we can conclude that we live in a giant jungle called Earth because there are obstacles at every turn. The old Tarzan movies give us an idea of what life in a jungle would be like; at every turn there is danger of one kind or another; it is constant.
Even though this is the case, there is an interesting factor that we must take into consideration, living beings survive the jungle all of the time! This last point is very important; in spite of clear and ever-present danger, there are always those who survive. There are also those who don’t. What is the difference between the two?
First off, it must be acknowledged that we will all make our exit from the planet someday. But we can influence the quality of our life while we are here by the way we choose to live it.
With that said, in one situation, people are in the right place at the right time, and because of this, manage to avoid pitfalls that would compromise their wellbeing.
Another type of person however, goes through life oblivious to danger and takes foolish chances without regard to the consequences that might result. These are the careless ones; these are the people who feel that there is no meaning to life and that everything is basically a crapshoot.
It might be said that the difference between those people who are able to dodge the slings and arrows of negative fate often have at least one thing in common; they have a positive outlook on life! This does not mean that they will always succeed in avoiding adversity; it means that when it occurs their responses to it might help them overcome severe consequences.
One of the major problems that people face today is apathy and a tendency toward selfish thinking fueled by a perception that life is cruel and that there is no point in living. This seems to be demonstrated more and more by a lack of empathy toward others. The increasing incidence of violence in American communities is a testament to this situation. This is not just happening in America, however; it is happening all over the world.
One of the positive functions of religion is that it provides people with hope for better things; it assigns meaning to life; there is a purpose and belief that good behavior will ultimately be rewarded even if the returns are not immediately evident. People who profess some element of faith, therefore, tend to fare better than those who do not.
Life seems to be getting worse on our dear planet. The jungle is getting meaner, and it will force us to find new ways of coping. We are being called upon to change our way of living. We are being called upon to renew our understanding of the value of shared lives. We must really figure out what the phrase “We are our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers” actually means!
Please don’t take the foregoing in a pessimistic manner; the negative has merely been mentioned to highlight the opposite. There is a silver lining underneath every cloud. We must not forget the Earth, though possessing jungle characteristics, is a schoolroom. We are here to learn to live together or perish alone.
So, as we look back at all of the negativity that comes at us on a daily basis, we need to understand that there is usually a failsafe mechanism in problematic situations.
This answer key is “Love.” Love of the agape type, applied to almost any problem that we have can generate positive outcomes. Even with climate change, if the profit motive would take a back seat to human well-being, mitigation of that problem might result. Love is the key to life on our jungle planet. A Luta Continua.
