Right from the Heart of Despina Namwembe, the Regional Coordinator-URI-Great Lakes
“Treating the other the way you want stems from strong empathy. A less empathetic person will work towards failing others, stepping on their aspirations, and ensuring that he/she dominates the space”.
Every time we celebrate the Golden Rule day it draws deep to my spiritual understanding, calling but most importantly to my faith practice of how best my actions can be towards another human being. We live in a world of religious and faith communities that emphasize competition for getting strong statistical presence than making faith a truly living practice in other people’s lives. Although the Golden Rule shares the sayings from the different religious, spiritual and indigenous traditions that calls on us to treat the other person the way we want to be treated – nature inclusive, many times those sayings are not acted upon. It takes a lot of daily practice and commitment to ensure that you abide by what your spirituality calls you to do in this regard.
Man by nature is selfish and many of the things we do are rooted in our personal interests. Sometimes we don’t mind how our interests affect those we live with or those around us and we take it to be okay most times.
There is also a belief that you can talk about something that affects another in a good way without actually acting on it. I think that is rather hypocrisy and that is spiritual emptiness. Strong spirituality calls us to be true to ourselves and those we relate with. Mere words never actualize the quest for truthful demonstration of our faith as we related with others.
We have a young generation that needs to learn from the old. This has to start from our homes teaching our children whether biological or not so long as they are in our care. They need to learn to treat people with respect, love and empathy. Incidentally society teaches these children selfishness and cunningness more than the values that draw us to deeply connect with others. Actually parents either knowingly or unknowingly encourage them to be street smart at an early age and when they grow up, it becomes hard for them to respect and empathize with others.
Treating the other the way we want to be treated stems from strong empathy. A less empathetic person will work towards failing others, stepping on their aspirations, and ensuring that he/she dominates the space. This comes in all spheres including; economic interests, employment opportunities and general social status. Some of these evolve from those interests, to anger, hate and eventual violence which maybe life threatening or even fatal.
Therefore, as we celebrate this year’s Golden Rule Day, lets draw deep into our spiritual convictions to know that whatever we fight for is simply vanity and we can never live in eternity on Earth. However, we can enjoy life if we can all share the little that we have with everyone including those we feel less connected to. It is actually self-satisfying to look around you and in your heart you know that your employed processes and actions were a building block to the success of another because you would feel same way if someone did the same for you.
