Unless

One of my favorite quotes goes something like this: “UNLESS someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”
-the Lorax written by Dr. Seuss

Lately I’ve been feeling like there aren’t many people who care a whole awful lot. Instead I’m recognizing we care a whole awful lot about “us”, “me” “my”, and “I”.

I am not exempt from it. And I guess I am somewhat stumped. So I am posing the question how do you forget about you? How do you balance caring about others when our natural human tendency is to care about the one.

I always have good intentions to do good, to serve, to give back. But is it all selfless?

One of my favorite people who walked this earth, Gordon B. Hinckley (previous Prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints), served a church mission in England. Upon writing his father that it was too hard and he wanted to go home, his father responded with this reply:

“Forget yourself, and go to work.”

Simple. Yet, I often struggle with the concept of forgetting myself. Someone cuts you off and you honk, someone does something you think to be stupid and you have a sassy remark ready to fire.

I don’t think life is about comebacks and insults. I don’t believe we were placed here to bring other people down for our gain. I don’t feel it is a necessity for us to mutter under our breaths. I don’t think we were placed here to only receive and never give.

It’s the holiday season. It’s stress city. And I’m not saying give all your money to the poor, or let all the drivers bully you around on the road. I guess what I am getting at is we could all be a little less aggressive. We could all consider what the people around us are going through. We could all forget ourselves and go to work. Whatever your work may be, immerse yourself in it. In doing so I believe you will lose yourself in goodness. Because UNLESS someone like you cares a whole awful lot about things other than you, nothing is going to get better–it’s not.