Hello Monsieur and wecome. I enjoyed reading your thoughts. If I may quote something you wrote,
I consider it important to keep an eye on the big picture. At one time I was certain of what this picture was. Recently though, its apparently become less clear.
I can say for certain that this began once the reality of the atrocities occurring in Assiria settled in. Questions began to fill my mind.
-how low can man go in his display of cruelty and selfishness?
I do understand you questioning this. I have asked this question myself. However I have found through studying history that the whole world used to be like this, with cruelty and poverty being the lot in life for most people .
It seems to me that life is slowly getting better for many people in the world as you say, My family isn't being threatened with bombs or machetes, but why? is it because we are simply lucky??
Some of us are lucky enough to be born in peaceful, politically and economically stable parts of the world. This is just an acident of birth becaues our countries have been through terrible times with dicatators and suffering but now we have developed democracies and a decent standard of living for ordinary people.
You sound like a person with empathy when you say, I am finding it harder and harder to find joy in my own life KNOWING that such things are happening. I consider it ridiculous at times when i look around and things really ARE perfect compared to those people's lot. Common sense dictates that i should be thankful that i am not in the middle of those circumstances, and in many ways i am.
To me this is a sign of someone who is aware of reality and seeing what it means to be truly human and living on a planet full of life and populated with millions who live, some in areas of extreme drought and constant hunger, some in areas of natural beauty but political instability and some of us living in relative safety and with a decent lifestyle but totally aware of what is happening in the world.
I do like you sometimes find it hard to live with joy knowing that such things are happening but I find knowing what is being done by good people in the world and trying to do my bit helps. I think in reality it works to, not that it is just a way of making people in rich countries feel better. Last month I spent a morning at my local Amnesty International group writing letters to the British Embassy in Afghanistan about the treatment of women in that country and to governemnts in other parts of the world that are sorely troubled.
AI does great work, do you remember it helping out with JWs because they were prisoners of conscience in various countries in the past? I certainly remember reading it in the Watchtower and Awake! magazines. In the Summer of 2011 a young man in Azerbaijan wrote something negative about his government on his facebook page. The next day, in the middle of the night, he was taken away and put in prison for four years. AI asked us to write to the president of Azerbaijan which thousands of us did - can you imagine all those letters arriving in his residence? In December of 2011 he was released.
Also UNISEF and Save the Children are doing marvelous work particulary at the moment. Save the children is supplying tents, blankets, clothing and food to the people of Syria. Unisef is providind immunisation for thousands of children around the world to prevent them needlessly dying of preventable diseases.
Don't despair, many good things are being done in the world. Not all humans display cruelty and selfishness. This is the side of humans that has been presented to you by your religious leaders I'm afraid. You have a broad intelligence and keen sensibilitiies and if you continue to widen out in these you will renew your joy in life.
Xanthippe
