Helping us Reach Utopia
by Evan Jones
www.eng.uwaterloo.ca/~ejones/thoughts
I discovered that I have a problem tonight. I can't stand to see the forests get
cut down, the birds disappear and our rivers turn black. I will not sit idly by
as anything is suffering. I detest seeing a waste of precious resources. The
real problem is that I want to fix the world's problems. I want to find the
solution for everyone. I want to see a world where everyone is happy.
I am searching for my Utopia.
Life is not a happy place when you are trying to help. You have to stare at the
ugliest part of human nature right in the face. What you see is yourself staring
right back at you. It is easy to get pessimistic and to feel unhappy about the
future. However, when you finally do see the birds return to a new forest, a
fish jumping in a once polluted stream or the smile on someone's face, you know
that it is worth it.
The big problem is that people do not want to be helped. They want to struggle
through their pain and their suffering themselves. It is a personal quest of
sorts, a goal. Perhaps it is because people do not want to seem weak, or maybe
they are simply afraid that the person they ask will just say no or will laugh.
It could be our competitive society's fault. We are always emphasizing the fact
that you have to be better then everyone else. You have to win at sports. You
have to get straight A's. We are always being compared to our peers. "Johnny's
parents certainly don't have any of these problems!". Or else it could be the
fact that we have been bred that the world is a scary place. That there are
murderers, rapists and thieves on every street corner. We have become paranoid.
Everyone is a possible threat.
The time when trying to be helpful is the hardest is when it seems like you
cannot do anything. When people refuse the help that you offer, or if they
simply do not care. The trouble is that too many people who are out there and
willing to help simply do not have the heart for it. But we cannot become
discouraged. It doesn't matter if people will not talk. If people simply know
that you are there, when they really need you they will come. It is not
important if no one will listen to your message. If what you say holds the power
of the truth people will listen.
We need each other to survive in our modern world.
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