By Basha Harris
and disempowered in an immovable world. Responding to this scary image with relief and gratitude for our own personal freedom from oppression kind of seems like an escapist, or cowardly act.... So how DO we respond to the knowledge that there is an unfathomable amount of suffering out there that we can't ever do anything about? How can we feel important or fulfilled if we are so very tiny?
This question of fulfillment has been troubling me for a while. Sometimes it seems like the adult world of which we are so quickly being swept into has too many people that have accepted that they can't make a difference. People that feel little towards the suffering of others, and also rarely feel fulfilled or important as human beings themselves. Why should we be any different when we "grow up"? Do we feel any different from those people right now? How can we ensure we will feel purposeful throughout our lives?
The deficit of gratitude for one's existence in this adult world isn't due to a lack of inner peace, internal realizations about all the things we have compare to others, or anything else that doesn't refer directly to the core of one's actions. One can only love oneself and the world if one is working towards a positive vision --emptying the world's scary, enormous "saltwater bowl" with their everyday decisions.
Doing good in the world is what makes people feel happy and fulfilled, and resultantly, being a fulfilled individual must mean you are doing good in the world. Purpose only comes from the constant pursuit of your positive vision. So why do we think about the suffering of people in the world today as we dip the karpas? Not so that we are overwhelmed by the task ahead!
We dip so that we may recognize the "saltiness" of the situation and envision a world with an empty bowl. And only when we feel that purposefulness - feel that WE are the ones actualizing to scoop water out and make the world a better place - will we feel true gratitude for our humanity and presence on this earth.
One might say that money, drugs, cars, hot sex, and other personal pleasures truly pace the road to self-realization, but if you find fulfillment in societies' conventional rewards, it's not possible to actually love yourself (and therefore, anything else). Gratitude for your life will have rotten foundations. The underlying knowledge that your existence does not work towards any greater, better vision will overshadow instant gratification. You'll taste no salt, feel no empathy towards man's struggle, and as a result will not really feel happiness.
What am I basically trying to say? Let us put mankind at the center of our beings! We know what it feels like to be lost, unimportant, or lonely. Let's work towards destroying those feelings. Our visions will never be exactly the same, but we know the difference between wrong and right - between emptying the bowl and adding to it - and we can be partners in this quest. Let's discuss, confirm, reconfirm, and most importantly, actualize. They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions. I say people make mistakes, but good intentions only ever eventually get you somewhere better. Let's combine our good intentions and feel really, truly purposeful and alive."