Yes, I’m talking to you. I apologize if I’m interrupting. But there’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you, and in the midst of all the crazy things in the world, sometimes I don’t feel like I have the time to say it.
Or sometimes it just doesn’t feel like it’s the right time, so I hold back from telling you what I’m thinking because maybe this sounds insane or maybe this sounds corny or foolishly naïve or whatever other adjective you want to apply to it.
To be honest though, I’m kind of past caring what people think.
Because caring what other people think has led me to not say the things I want to say, and it’s probably caused me not to help some people who maybe I could have helped. I have to live with that, and the weight of it is getting heavier day by day. So here’s my rather radical little secret that I want to share with you, so that you may all understand what I’m doing here.
I want to change the world.
Usually the people you hear of changing the world are either billionaires or superheroes. Since I haven’t been bitten by any radioactive spiders or been exposed to massive overdoses of gamma radiation, and since the last time I checked my bank account was closer to zero than it is to $1 billion, I have to choose a different way to make a difference, to enact my “master plan” of changing the world into the way I want it to be.
I have words, and I have you.
See I have this crazy dream. I’d like to see a world full of kindness, where people felt happy, peaceful and contented, because in my experience, happy people don’t start problems. Let’s face it, the universe has enough suffering and pain and stupidity built in. Just being human means that you’re guaranteed a birthright of problems and pain.
But when I look at the biggest problems in the world, most of them are created by people treating other people like objects, because they can’t live with how they feel about themselves in their quiet moments.
And I want to change that.
Yet in my experience, lasting change—the kind of change that actually sticks and makes a difference—doesn’t start with flashy gestures, and it doesn’t involve massive programs. If spending billions of dollars actually made a difference, we should be happy, and yet so many people are not.
I think we’ve been going about it all wrong.
I think the things that fundamentally change the human experience are organic, and they spread person-to-person, touching, enriching and ennobling life at an everyday level. Because when you wake up in the morning surrounded by a world of wonder and imagination, accepting yourself without criticism and without judgment, knowing that you’re trying your best…
Then you become the kind of person who helps others, which is exactly who I want you to be.
Because in a world full of heroes and villains, mayhem and monsters, what we actually need are people who can listen with kindness. I can tell you that on a dark day five years or so ago when I was struggling, feeling overwhelmed from all the pressure I was under, one act of kindness by one man sending me a text changed my entire day.
Kindness and compassion can heal more wounds than all the doctors in the world.
In my experience, the people who have the most kindness and the strongest compassion are those who have come through their own darkness, and in their own healing have found an understanding and a desire to help others. People who are hurting tend to focus on themselves, while people who are healing tend to reach out to others.
So I’m trying to heal the world, one person at a time, so that each person who is healed will radiate kindness and compassion to somebody else.
Yeah, I’m crazy enough to believe that a virus of kindness, happiness, peaceful hearts and loving compassion can do more than has ever been done before.
And my goal is to spread that kindness, that happiness, that peace and that compassion by helping you find your own peace, and then trusting in your goodness that you will share with others.
Right now all I have are these words and these pictures, but probably coming soon will be a microphone, maybe someday a video camera. Because I’m done playing small, and I’m past giving a damn what people think. These lives we have are so short, and the universe can be an unkind mistress, and you all deserve better than what you have been given.
My goal is to even up the score, and see what I can do to get us ahead.
Because in the end, the quality of your life comes down to how you feel about yourself, and how connected you are with others. I plan to help you with the first part, knowing that you’ll take care of the second.
So this is me, doing my best to help you, so that together we can change the world.
Maybe my dream is crazy, or maybe I’ve totally lost my mind.
Or maybe, just maybe, things get better for all of us.
— Dr. Alan Barnes
@maddrbmusings