Common to all humankind is a desire to be great. This desire is expressed in a plurality of ways: to be great in the eyes of others, to do something great for another, to be remembered in history for your accomplishments, to make an impact on the world we live in, and so on. Greatness is deeply rooted in our human nature, and rightfully so, we are actually capable of greatness unlike anything else on earth: We are incredible creatures of flight (e.g. the Antonov Air's An-225 which weighs 1.32 million pounds (it can actually fly through the air!), sound barriers are broken, men walking on the moon). Also, we have done amazing things in many areas like medicine, technology, human rights (e.g. the work of: Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa). These things are results of the incredible capabilities of human beings. However, the capacity to do incredibly good things seems to be accompanied by the capacity to do incredibly bad things: Leaders of countries (especially in the third world) selfishly consume resources while their people starve and die for want of proper food and medicine. Moreover, the 20th Century has provided us with fascinating example of human ingenuity in regards to genocide. More people have been killed, in more efficient ways, than in any century prior to the 20th at the hands of humans. Not to mention the awesome power of destruction that is found in an atomic bomb.
The point here is that humans can do incredible things, both good and bad, and insofar as we realize this, we have a responsibility to use these capabilities to do good. And, since humans are also creatures of habit, we should develop within ourselves a disposition to doing good. The continual struggle to do good will eventually cause us to participate in the process of becoming good--that is, it appears we have limitations and will never perfectly be good, but it seems we are capable of at least getting on track to becoming good people. In the end, the greatest people unite their desire to be great with the capacity to habitually do good.
More to come--I will be keeping the posts shorter now.
