All i Want For Christmas

*Have not seen one in a while? Hey, i did one a day for a month in October. i needed rest.*

With all this family time surrounding thanksgiving there was bound to be plenty of fodder for moments of enlightenment, or at least exemplars to rant about. Over this extended holiday weekend too much family, too much television, too much reading, and just plain too much thinking (with a little tattoo planning thrown in) brought about one reoccurring theme: the human race - inherently good or inherently bad?

This all started with a conversation i was drawn into with members of my extended family. When asked i expressed my belief that given the opportunity, a majority of people will do bad things for selfish reasons every time. You can not count on people to do the right thing. i apparently think like my uncles. My own father was the most empassioned counter. He felt that most people are good and listed off occasions were people were taking care of their neighbors and offering generous aide.

i clarified my statement by elaborating on my specific choice of the word "majority". i do not feel that ALL people are bad. In fact i continued on to express how our very society exists and is able to continue on all due to that absolutely amazing minority of "good" people. You can not count on people to help you out, however, truly good people seem to end up where they are needed most. It is an incredibly overwhelming phenomenon. That "good" minority just seem to take care of us all, without comment, almost always without thanks, they do what they do. They are not represented in government, in media, or in any formal way. i find it infinitely beautiful and one of the few redeeming qualities of the human race.

i think i swayed the discussion as everyone started conjuring up situations where the right person seemed to end up where they were needed as i quietly left the room. i overheard the conversations even evolve into mention of careers where these type of people frequently end up working. Careers where kind services are performed. Careers, unfortunately, that also do not pay particularly well. Of course these people do what they do for a reason, for an ideal and that keeps them doing what they do while the other greedy majority take advantage of this passion and keep the wages low. i am sure you can list 5 such careers without much thought at all.

Driving from one family event to another i was sideswiped on the highway. As i finally came to rest in the highway median i watched the car that had hit me go into oncoming traffic sending numerous cars to scatter before it finally went off the road itself. Unfortunately the driver of the causing car must have had a medical issue and was most likely not conscious through the whole ordeal. Only one car pulled over to help. At least ten cars had to struggle to avoid the vehicle driving on the highway in the opposite direction and countless others travelled by our two vehicles damaged on the edges of the highway. One pulled over to help.

And what do you think this character, this good Samaritan was like? Of course he was kind, and gentle in nature, and the nicest random person you could expect to meet. Several times he expressed regret that he could not help out more than he had. Inspirational.

Did this happen to me because of the conversation i had or as punishment for my commentary on humanity? No. This happened because this stuff happens every day. People acted how they acted because this is how they act every day. (it did clearly support my hypothesis though... just saying)

We are lucky to have that kind minority!

As Copenhagen rapidly approaches and this planet's leaders get together for a couple of weeks to come up with a plan to save our species from our current climate crisis i keep thinking about what got us into this situation. Billions of people on a daily basis making the selfish choice, the easy choice, the wrong choice. The vehicle you choose to drive, the food you choose to eat, the products you choose to buy. This has caused us to go beyond the tipping point of climate change and has put the human race in a situation of best case suffering and worst case extinction.

Maybe seeing this and studying this on a daily basis caused me to say what i did at that family get together. Maybe it was just living on this planet for over 3 decades. Maybe it was because i am a punk monk. But no matter the reasons, i have seem beautiful things in the life of this planet including at times in the human race and i want to see those things continue on and to be able to continue to come about long after i take my last breath.

i hope, i pray, i wish that there will be enough "good" people at those meetings in Copenhagen to save us all. What a Christmas present that would be.