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We make mistakes, some we consider worse than others. Sometimes we live on as if those mistakes weren’t made, or that our mistakes are "okay" because others have made mistakes we consider worse.
This is moronic.
We believe that by ignoring our mistakes, or justifying them we can be better people. Other people think that mistakes can be "fixed" or undone. But this is also a fallacy, though slightly more productive. A situation can be fixed, but mistakes remain in time.
There is no way to pluck them from our history and dispose of them as we might dispose of some unpleasant thing we find lodged in our nostril.
So we have made mistakes. Everyone has. We are all imperfect, all broken human beings. Not in the least models of human decency, any of us. This depresses some people.
Many people look inwards to heal themselves. They seek to "fix" themselves, which can never work, because how can a hammer fix itself if it itself is broken? Then they look to other people to fix them, but this is equally futile. A broken screwdriver can do no more than a broken hammer.
This is why we must not seek to fix ourselves, nor ask others to fix us. Then what is the answer? If we cannot morally perfect ourselves? The answer is do our best. But I don’t mean that in the cliche kindergarten way, in which the teacher means if you do things wrong, it is okay because you are ignorant and naive. I mean that we actually must do our best. With full knowledge of our actions we must strive to do the right thing in all situations.
And so now you ask what is the right thing? I will tell you as best I can, though the premise itself is simple, the execution can sometimes become muddled. We must help other people. Not in the fixing way, not in justification of their mistakes, but rather, in lightening their load in life. Because no matter what you do in life, helping out another human being can never be wrong. No institution or structure or ideology or work of art will outlast humanity. Will outlast human kindness. Because that concept predates all else we know, and will even continue on into forever. If you do not believe me in this, you are broken beyond even doing your best. If you cannot recognize the value in other people I do not know what else I can say to you.
Following from what I have said, it goes like this. We are imperfect. We can’t help that. The only thing we can do is strive to always do the right thing, which is helping other people. We see now that the closest thing to "fixing" ourselves of moral imperfection that humans can achieve is to not look inward, but outward, forgetting the self, and trying to help other people.
This is the true concept of self healing, though we find it to be a grammatical contradiction. To heal ourselves we look outward. This seems illogical but that is only because we have been raised in a perverse inwards looking society that boasts only its ability to raise people who are miraculously self centered.
And the nitpicker would say, "There are some situations in which we must choose what is best for a person and how should we know? Or how would we decide between helping two people in plight."
The answer is simple: we should ask people how to help them, and if they will not tell us, we should move on and help a person who is willing to be helped. If we touch a person without them touching us back, if we were to touch them without us wanting to, this is striking them, in essence. It is physical contact without their consent. But if they reach out to touch us with their hand, and we touch hands with them then it means something else entirely.
It is the same way with people’s wills. If we touch someone with our will without their consent, we are merely influencing them or pressuring them. But if their will reaches out and touches our will then we have come to a point that says, I will bear the weight of your will.
This does not mean we condone their mistakes, nor do we "put up with them". Rather it is the joining of two people to carry the weight of them both. So that if one carries less weight they may distribute it and carry it equally. This is the way in which people are"together", which should not be mistaken for "unbroken". There is no route to "unbroken-ness" that we can achieve.
This matters because it is not two crippled entities joining together to become one good entity. By joining with another person we do not cancel out our mistakes.
Togetherness means that our mistakes and our burdens and our troubles are no longer ours to bear alone, but with someone else. Many people think that this means that with two halves we become one, but this is the wrong way to think about it.
Instead think of it this way. If there are two rivers, is either half a river? No each is a whole river unto itself. And if the two rivers join were either half a river before? No.
When the two rivers join, there is still debris from the tributaries. But it is far diluted among the greater body of water. This is the way "togetherness" is different from 1/2+1/2.
Furthermore, when there are two rivers joined, debris that at one point may have slowed its flow is merely carried along, and beared by the river. A log that may clog a stream will be borne by the Mississippi. This is why we should join "together" with other people. Form friendships, find lovers, and make steadfast companions.
Then the nitpicker has said we must choose between two goods for two people. And this only proves that we must form "togetherness with other people". If we cannot help two people alone, then surely if we had another helper with me we could help both? And if there were a hundred people who needed help then we would have one hundred helpers with to help.
Then he says, as if he is clever, "But what if you don’t have one hundred helpers?"
And I would laugh at him, and say, pick up your toolbox and help me build this poor persons house, because you have only proved that you should do what I say. For if we were one helper short because you were complaining that my logic was inconsistent or my justifications vague, or my reasoning backwards then one less person would be helped because it made you feel clever to by cynical.
But this man would argue that sometimes there would be no one available to help.
And I would say to him, Then there would be no one to help. For once the helpless are helped, they too become helpers.
And he would say to me, as if he knew how humans thought, Any self serving person, which You (the writer) claim everyone to be, would simply accept the help and help others none.
And I would say back to him, I pity you who understands nothing, for to build a poor mans house is not helping him if he does not see he has been helped.
To truly Help someone you must reach out and touch them and they must touch hands with you as well.
If they do not wish to truly be Helped, and taught how to be "together" and do their best, then they are merely being assisted. Remember, that true healing comes from trying to help other people and forgetting the self. So we do not Help the poor man by building his house, we Help the poor man by showing him how we ourselves are healed and kept content by building his house.
And the poor man would say to himself, These people build other people’s houses and have naught a thought for themselves and they are content, and their weight is carried among them so that they may all carry their burdens equally and they are like many great rivers joined together so that any weight can be beared among them.
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