Today is christmas, a holiday to share and celebrate with your loved ones and i think it’s also a good opportunity to call to our minds that not everyone has the privilege to live in safe and sound surroundings like us. Truth is that we talk about fashion while in other regions of the very same planet people have to worry about how to survive. We laugh and spend quality with our loved ones while somewhere else at the same time there are people who just lost their whole family or other dear ones, due to acts of inhuman violence, due to catastrophes or illnesses. If you consider yourself one of the human beings still having a heart that is able to feel and show compassion inevitably there’ll be questions torturing your mind. How can we celebrate while others suffer? How can we dwell in wealth while others starve? How can we justify our lifestyles in front of nature, in front of others who don’t enjoy the same privileges, of our surroundings and lastly in front of ourselves? How can we live while others die? And of course if we’re honest to ourselves very, very few of us would be willing to give up the standards and comforts we’re used to and we’re blessed with. And of course we need to allow ourselves to be happy and enjoy our fortune and the joys of life. And no, maybe you won’t be able to cure world hunger and illnesses or create world peace all by yourself. But when it comes down to it you should recall these questions. And you should engrave them into your brain. And you should call to your mind that at the end of the day luck is the crucial factor that decides over whether you live or die. It’s luck that determines whether you are born in a healthy and safe environment. And to some extent it’s also luck whether you stay healthy or you’ll get ill. It’s the arrogance of human nature and our self-perception as the one species superior to all others that creates the illusion we would be able to control everything. But truth is that external influences and chance will always pave the roads of which we can then decide which one we take. I think this is what we have to internalize and remember the next time we’re confronted with people less fortunate than us. It is a lie of a system that drills you to always maximize your own benefit before looking after others that the well-being of others is none of your business. In fact everyone strives for and deserves moments of happiness in life. And while this happiness can come in completely different ways and forms helping others to experience a moment of happiness will ultimately also contribute to your own happiness. Doing something good and showing compassion should not be tied to a certain festivity or date. It should be a desire we should carry in us at all time. And maybe there will be situations, tough situations, in which we won’t have the strength to act according to these principles but it’s these dark moments that we wish for someone to help us find a glimpse of light, a moment of happiness. It’s a simple ratio that we tend to forget because we get too focused on ourselves. So let’s make christmas and our new year resolutions about engraving this into our heads and, even more importantly, into our hearts.
