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I know. There are definite ups and downs in the economy.
There are ups and downs in different cultures, races, gender(s), and
our different points of view offer contrast that doesn't always feel in
sync with what we think life should be. Well.... there might be
an additional perspective or two to consider:
If we could shrink
the earth's population to a village of
precisely 100 people, with all the existing human ratios remaining the
same, this is how our world would look:
There
would be:
57 Asians
21
Europeans
14 from
the Western Hemisphere, both north and south
8 would be
Africans
52 would
be female
48 would
be male
30 would
be white
70 would
be non-white
70 would
be non-Christian
30 would
be Christian
89 would
be heterosexual
11 would
be homosexual
6 people
would possess 59% of the entire world's wealth and all 6 would
be from the USA.
80 would
live in substandard housing
70 would
be unable to read
50 would
suffer from malnutrition
1 would be
near death
1 would be
near birth
1 (yes,
only 1) would have a college education
1 (yes,
only 1) would own computer.
When one
considers our world from such a compressed perspective, we
realize the need for acceptance, understanding and education.
So
therefore . . .
If
you
have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof
overhead and a place to sleep, you are richer than 75% of this world.
If you woke up this morning with more health than illness, you are more
blessed than the million who will not survive this week.
If
you
have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a
dish someplace, you are among the top 8% of the world's wealthy. If you
can attend a worship meeting without fear of harassment, arrest,
torture, or death, you are more blessed than three billion people in
the world.
If
you
have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of
imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation, you are
ahead of 500 million people in the world.
If
you can
read this message you are more blessed than the over two
billion people in the world who cannot read at all. Sometimes
being reminded how life is in the rest of the world helps us remember
how lucky we are!
"He
who forgives ends the
argument." -African proverb
"The
road
toward a more satisfying and meaningful life involves a 'recipe': make
lists of things for which
you're grateful in your life, practice random acts of kindness, forgive
your enemies, notice life's small pleasures, take care of your health,
practice positive thinking, and invest time and energy into friendships
and family."
-- Sonja
Lyubomirsky of the
University of California at
Riverside
"Through
our scientific and
technological genius, we have made of this world a neighborhood and
yet. . . we have not had the ethical commitment to make it a
brotherhood. We must all learn to live together as brothers. Or we will
all perish together as fools. We are tied together in the single
garment of destiny, caught in an inescapable network of mutuality."
-MARTIN
LUTHER KING ONLINE
Our
deepest fear is not
that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is
that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness,
that frightens us most. We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant,
gorgeous, talented, and famous?' Actually, who are you not to be? You
are a child
of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing
enlightened about shrinking so that people won't feel insecure around
you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.
It's
not just in some of us; it's in all of us. And when we let our own
light
shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As
we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically
liberates
others.
Used by Nelson
Mandela in
his 1994 inaugural speech
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Created
05/14/05
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