[redacted]: An update on the concept at week six
It has been six weeks since starting [redacted], and the impact of the Principle of Human Respect on my own life has been positive. It has helped identify barriers to happiness, harmony, and prosperity and led to a greater clarity of what those words mean in my own life.
Most interesting, in my opinion, has been the experience of being pushed away.
The principle pushes me away from itself, safely, toward a greater realization of its promise.
This gets a bit tricky to describe, so my apologies in advance.
I can’t sell the realization of the Principle. There’s nothing for you to buy. Articulation of the value is redacted, because words are insufficient. The title I chose for this project holds up, so far, because there is no one definition. The experience of being happy, harmonious, and prosperous is different for each person.
Speaking it, or writing about it, consistently brings less happiness because it is time spent away from living it, but feels energizing to be encouraging others toward their own potential best life. There is a joy in pointing to what is not communicable, and a greater joy in finding hints, easter eggs, and breadcrumbs, indicating in no uncertain terms that despite our existence as individual “island universes,” unity is still present. This is the Truth the Principle acknowledges, and it is perennial.
I used to want to make a different point, even just at the beginning of learning about the Principle of Human Respect. Initially, I assumed that this would take me downstream toward a discussion of policy, politics, and law. Like so many other concepts that jive with rational truth and morality, however, it has pointed me to that which is underlying and above, or upstream, though this is also imprecise.
Now, I find happiness to be something new and unique. I feel more aware of when happiness and other forms of value are lacking.
Awareness of time changes. The Principle asks for a consideration of time, but I am influenced deeply by the fact that it directs me to be both value-added and kind.
Kindness is a Valuable Act is sympatico, not exactly. Shards of a larger whole, laying over each other. The Principle clearly acknowledges this truth and offers a way to achieve peace despite human differences and an imperfect reality.
I feel obligated to write about this, it is not a joy. The tides of change demand action. Change is going to happen anyway.
I was in a room recently where fifty people chanted: “No one is coming to save you.” The silence that reverberated back to that sad group was deafening. So many were unaware they were fully capable of helping themselves and, by extension, everyone.
Related: What’s the best experience you’ve had with water?
