Each and every day, each of us has the power to make a difference for the better in the life of some or the other. To be sure, most of us will not save a life from will not save a life from imminent danger. In fact, most of us may not have the courage or fortitude to do such a thing. But there is so much good that we can long before we are faced with the choice of rescuing someone from imminent danger.
And if there is one thing that amazes me more than any other, it is that quite often the good that we can do, while costing next to nothing, is almost priceless in terms of its impact upon the recipient.
I have had the pleasure of making a few CDs for friends, where I design a very nice label for the CD. The end product costs no more than $2.00. Yet, the appreciation that people have expressed has moved me deeply. The power lies with the design of the label. For a superb label design takes the ordinary and turns it into something absolutely personal. Still, what we are talking about is nothing expensive at all. It is a simple truth that purity of heart can utterly transform the ordinary.
I fear that, in this ever so fast world, we are losing sight of this moral power. And, as a result, there is an emptiness that so many of us are tying to fill. Consequently, it is wrongly thought by so many that it is about things being "bigger and better". But that is utterly false. "Bigger and better" is not, and cannot be, a substitute for purity of heart. Showing love and affection should never be about trying to "out do one's past actions". If that happens: fine! But that is not the point of showing love and affection. Our moral power lies simply in the ability to show love and affection to our loved-ones and friends, and to show appreciation towards others. And the reality is that sometimes the simplest things can be an expression of that. This has to be right. After all, a person who has every thing, as they say, is still in need of love and affection. Such a person may easily be able to buy herself this or that new item on the market. But all the money in the world cannot buy the personalized gift that one gives to her. Money cannot buy a gesture of kindness. And so often in life, what a person wants more than anything else is simply a gesture of kindness or a token of gratitude.
On my view, human beings crave these small tokens of affection or appreciation. After all, it is these small gestures that nurture our lives at the outset. And adulthood never ever eradicates the need for them. In return, each of us has the moral power to speak to this craving--this moral craving, if you will--by small acts of kindness. There is a moral thirst which each of us has the power to quench.
We are harmed insofar as we fail to realize that we have this moral thirst or insofar as we fail to realize that we have the power to quench the moral thirst of another.
Morality is an equal opportunity activity. On the one hand, no one is without this moral thirst; on the other, no one is without the ability to quench it. The wherewithal to be somebody is more within our reach than most of us would ever suppose. To the extent that modern society blinds us to these truths, then modern society is inimical to our moral health.
