We often focus on the bad things happening in the world, even more so as the general media highlights the bad and the shocking and encourages us to have a negative view. However, it is very easy to see that the world we live in is overwhelmingly a world of love and friendship. All we have to do is look around and observe.
In our homes – love and friendship
Even though there can be arguments and periods of dislike in our homes, the dominant feelings that exist are love and friendship. Families and friends of the families are generally concerned about each others wellbeing and want to help each other have happy and fulfilling lives. This is happening every day in innumerable homes across the world. Some might say that relatives only care for each other because they have too, because they’re related, but I don’t think that’s true in general.
In restaurants – observe love and friendship
Next time you’re in a restaurant, just look around at the people at the other tables. In general, you’ll see people being nice to each other, listening to each other, having a laugh, providing support. It’s clear that the world is full of love and friendship. Almost everyone in the restaurant is being nice to each other.
When there’s a crime – love and friendship
When some bad crime happens, let’s say a mugging in a street that leaves the victim badly injured, it’s easy to focus on the bad things in the world. It’s easy to think “there are really evil people in the world who are capable of such awful things” or “this world is so dangerous, it’s not safe to walk alone at night”, and such things. However, just take another look at the situation and you’ll see strangers coming to the aid of the injured person. You’ll see paramedics arriving in an ambulance to help the victim. You’ll see a range of doctors and nurses at the hospital caring for the person, and you’ll see the persons family and friends arriving at the hospital to provide moral support. Clearly the world is overwhelmingly one of love and friendship.
In a disaster – love and friendship
Now, even in the case of a huge disaster like an earthquake with hundreds of people trapped in rubble, we can think that the world is horrible, unfair and dangerous. But once again, if we just look around at the situation, we see thousands of people mobilised in rescue efforts. If people didn’t have love and friendship for one another, nobody would bother risking their own lives to rescue others. But they do! Happily and willingly, thousands of people go into dangerous situations in the hope they can rescue a survivor of the natural disaster. This is the amazing part of a natural disaster – it exposes the true depth of the natural love and friendship that we have for each other. On the one hand the natural disaster is terrible and on the other it is beautiful.
Corporate world – is their love and friendship?
One place where love and friendship seems to be missing is in the world of corporate profits. The large companies seem to be fighting each other to “win”, whatever that means. Many companies want to monopolise markets, “kill off” their competitors and make the most profits. This is not the natural way. Profit seems to be the main focus, but you can’t have love and friendship with money, it’s just an artificial construct. Sure, there can be love and friendship between the people inside a company (that’s expected as people are naturally loving and friendly), but between companies and towards the rest of society it is rare. Some companies are getting more into “social corporate responsibility” but unfortunately we often wonder if this is sincere or just an effort to help them “win” and make the most profits. I’m glad to see that more and more companies (generally small ones) are popping up where their first concern is doing good things for the world – we need more of these.
Final word
It’s very easy to see that the world is definitely a world dominated by love and friendship. We can see it everywhere if we just slow down, open our eyes (and our minds) and just look. The simplest interaction between two people near you now is almost certainly and expression of love and friendship, even the simple nod between strangers as they pass each other on the street. The media, and many corporations, promote the bad things that do happen in this world and can make us believe that the world is fundamentally bad. But whenever something apparently bad happens, we can see the world of love and friendship flow in to help rectify the situation. This is beautiful and it demonstrates the real essence of the world.
Related Links – love and friendship
- Who are you?
- We Are America – Love Has No Labels
- Unconditional Love
- I never knew there was a movie with Kate Beckinsale called “Love and Friendship”. Maybe I should check that out at some point.
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