Striving only for material wealth is incompatible with our latent personal longing for love and recognition. Simons discourse identifies a remedy available to all of us, that of adopting an attitude of love, and then putting that love into action in whatever way is open to each of us. We admire and appreciate those among us who overcome the natural impulse toward individual comfort. Currently, the organization of Doctors Without Borders, people who have eschewed financial gain and devoted themselves to bringing medical care to others in disease-ridden and war-torn areas, accepting danger and poor living conditions as they do so, is an example. Two individuals, also, come to mind. The late Mother Theresa practiced love as few in history have done, and remained an outspoken advocate for the poor and oppressed throughout her life. Canadian Stephen Lewis, who works tirelessly for the people of Africa who suffer the consequences of the AIDS epidemic is another such person. But, few of us are able to enact such extreme values. We have our familial commitments, our societal demands, our need to ensure that we ourselves will not become a drain to others, and these hold us in a sense of impotent guilt and envy. The answer? Start small, with ourselves. Live in and through an attitude of love. Become channels through which Universal Love can flow toward our families, our neighbors, our friends, and our fellow people. Marnie Atkinson, M.A. Ed.
