Mylightwarrior: No one can be happy as long as there is suffering and poverty in the world!

 I found this moving and inspirational comment and wanted to share it! 

During my best working years when I had a good union job, and thought I always would, I was never totally happy. People would say, “Dave you are doing so well, why so sad?” and I had no answer. I was only in this very good position for a few years, and then the weakening economy and the anti union climate of the 80s reached my little corner of the world, and the entire shift that I was on lost their jobs, right after I had signed the loan for a new car.

It is easy to understand why I have not been happy since then, working much tougher jobs, with very high stress and low pay, loss of health, and now poverty. Yet I never realized until the last few years why I was not happy when I was doing so well. The hint was given to me when people said “Dave, you still have some work and a roof over your head, and food every day. Cheer up. You still have a lot to be grateful for.”

Well, that’s true, so far, but I still felt very sad, most of the time. Thinking about that, I realized that many others, in fact, a third of the world population, don’t even have the basics of life, such as housing and food, never mind medical care and education. In this country’s declining economy, there are more and more of them within walking distance of where I live, in a nation that once prided itself on being the richest in the world.

I am now aware that at some level, I have always felt the pain caused by poverty, cruelty, and environmental destruction, and it has always caused me an unshakable, deep sadness, even during times when I lived in denial or even ignorance of it.

I now call this the “great sadness”. It is what motivated me to make the very difficult and long transition to a vegetarian diet. My political beliefs started changing early in life, and by the time I was in my late 20s, I became mostly a tree hugging liberal. I drove small cars, gave as little of my money as possible to big corporations, and did what I could to promote compassion and ecological balance. I thought that by doing these things, I could help make the world a better place to live.

Now I see that even if I reduce my share of responsibility for the world’s problems to as little as possible, the profound sadness is still there. Politics don’t matter. Even good deeds don’t matter. The problem is still there.

Given the last few years, and my understanding of who and what are really responsible for the world’s problems, I now see a ray of hope in what you have been posting here. If it is indeed true that this evil cabal is losing its footing, and will soon be gone, that is wonderful news. I would love to see a day when most of the suffering of this world comes to an end, and we can have the world many of us have always believed is possible.

http://mylightwarrior.blogspot.com/