I remember a beloved teacher asking us this peculiar question, in reference to the student organization we were part of. "If you suddenly disappear from the face of the earth, what difference will that make? How many people will miss you?"
She meant to ask us how we could make our organization more impactful, more meaningful to the students. But that question is still tainting the eternal sunshine of my mind.
The Hanting-shaped hole I will leave behind will be a minor inconvenience, at most. It's not a problem with self-esteem, it's self-assessment. I could have reached out to the world in a hundred billion different ways, inspired, moved, influenced, assisted, but I haven't. I have pursued a hundred billion different pointless endeavours, and in the process been unable to make a difference to the lives around me.
This sense of purpose is very important, do you not agree? Without it one is like a rudderless sampan, floating through life, 'chasing down every single temporary high'.
One life out of six billion.
One lifetime to make a difference - 20 years already down
Sigh.
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" It's not a problem with self-esteem, it's self-assessment. "
I like. It takes a certain degree of awareness and understanding to see that about yourself. And wrt to your previous post about faith. I think it all goes hand in hand. Nothing is worth anything if it doesn't spring from an inherent sense of humanity. Anything is rendered useless if it doesn't go back to serving humanity. And how else can that be fulfilled other then to get connected with the maker of humanity? But I preach.
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