The Human Experience
For my 33rd birthday, a considerate friend (Thank You M!!!) made me the most amazing gift: a moment to dig in, to nurture my mind and soul, and pray for deep conversion of the heart.
After almost 3 weeks from receiving it, I finally took the time to watch that incredible life-telling documentary: “The Human Experience”.
It remarkably depicts the sense of life: after all, the essential and happiness lie in love, in your family, in your friends; in caring for your “bothers and sisters”, for your neighbor, for the stranger…
A passion for life that we, Westerners, have completely forgotten and put aside to satisfy superficial needs, dictated by a society that wants to make us believe, every single morning that we get up, that we are nothing without money, possessions, and status. That we are nothing and that we aren’t irreplaceable, when the essence of our existence and nature is that we are unique and that we all have a purpose to fulfill.
How much do we care about and devote ourselves to (our) Humanity in comparison to the time we dedicate to work on how we appear to the world?
I’m guilty as charged.
The documentary rightly states it, quoting Martin Luther King, Jr. “We must rapidly begin the shift from a ‘thing-oriented’ society to a ‘person-oriented’ society”. Indeed, as one homeless woman was testifying: “Family and friends are all that matter. If you don’t have them, you’ll be in big troubles. (…) I’m a Jew and the Rabi taught that we are brothers and sisters and that we should take care of one another”.
A loved one told me today that until I use the “qualities” and “talents” I was given, I’ll never be at peace, nor happy, because they’ll keep bugging me until I do. I guess it’s the same when deeply you yearn about something but don’t put your finger on it quite yet.
So until I get there, please, pray with me…pray for my conversion…so that tomorrow I don’t forget this message, while going back to my routine.
God bless you.
www.grassrootsfilms.com/thehumanexperience
Synopsis
From Grassroots Films of Brooklyn, New York comes THE HUMAN EXPERIENCE – the story of a band of brothers who travel the world in search of the answers to the burning questions: Who am I? Who is Man? Why do we search for meaning? Their journey brings them into the middle of the lives of the homeless on the streets of New York City, the orphans and disabled children of Peru, and the abandoned lepers in the forests of Ghana, Africa. What the young men discover changes them forever. Through one on one interviews and real life encounters, the brothers are awakened to the beauty of the human person and the resilience of the human spirit.
I’m sure YOU WILL! Till then, you can count on that stranger’s prayers.
While your location’s economics make it a little unusual, for most participants in the Western economic system there is no choice but to focus on material things – if they do otherwise they quickly become unable to keep their families safe and warm. Many would love to step off the financial merry-go-round and take more time with their loved ones.
For those that could step off but don’t, I think there is a distinction between working to acquire more and more “money, possessions and status” versus working to accomplish things that matter – which often result in more money, possessions and status. I think that this reflects a key human trait that led to the evolution of our species: man’s drive to build and create.
What connects your first point with your second (use of your qualities and talents) seems to me to be the age old search for meaning in life: “what is the point of me being here?” It may well be that there is no real point and that we have to create one. Either way, 1 Cor 13:13 seems relevant.