“I’m a citizen of the world.”
“I care about all living things equally.”
“Our community donates tons to charity.”
These are all things I’ve heard in the last while. I think it reveals one of the primary problems in modern society.
We try to help the entire world (sometimes including all animals and plants) before we fix ourselves and our immediate community.
People who care more about their community than struggling communities half way around the planet are portrayed as selfish and greedy.
There’s a tiny issue with this philosophy.
We aren’t gods…
We can’t help everyone in the world. I think people often feel a sense of discomfort with problems that arise in their family and local communities. Instead of facing those problems head on and developing the humility it takes to recognize our own part in them, we give to a charity or even worse “become informed” on a topic half way around the world.
I feel like this is somewhat like taking medication to cover up the symptoms of a disease without digging into the root cause.
I look at things more like this,
If you can’t take care of yourself, you can’t take care of your family.
If you can’t take care of your family, you can’t take care of your community.
If you can’t take care of your community, you can’t take care of your country.
If you can’t take care of your country, you can’t take care of the world.
Ultimately, I believe that the majority of our problems stem from each individual person. These people become parents and their unresolved problems get transferred to their children. Those children go out into the world and spread their problems into the community and so on and so forth.
So, it all starts with taking care of ourselves and if we use charity as a form of medication for our problems we’ll never get there. Concerning yourself with things that are well outside your control is a recipe for insanity.
I’m not saying charity is a bad thing at all, but what I am saying is that if you take care of your own problems first it will make it possible for you to make a bigger difference in other people’s lives than you ever could before.
That is our primary mission here at the ranch. I haven’t solved every problem in myself, not by a long shot, but I’m focusing my efforts on improving myself, our business, our clients, and our community.
That’s plenty for a mortal.