Sunday, 24 February 2013

Our life is not a lonely island


As I wrote somewhere else everything is relative; so our life.
Here I am not intending to discuss the relation of our life to other animal kingdom or the environment. I would rather prefer to discuss how our life is related to our fellow human beings.

Before 13 years I bought a residential plot in a less frequented area. No big houses were seen around. The road before the plot was in a bad condition. Many residential plots around were unoccupied and bushy. But I could not wait for someone to join me constructing a house in their plot. So I cleared my plot, constructed a boundary wall and soon built a house. After the construction and a few days after living in it, I looked around. My plot and the house in it have rendered a facelift to the area. The area around looked more clean and attractive. Soon more people came for residential plot in that area. The price of plots increased to double and more. The local governing body repaired the road and new water supply was made available. Electric power supply changed from two phase to three phase. Better residences were constructed lifting the appearance of the area.

What was happening?
My residential plot is not a lonely island. It is a part of the whole wide area. As I cleared the ground, built a residence and constructed a boundary wall the effect of it was not to my plot alone. It gave a face lift to the whole area.

I have heard alcoholics claim that drinking alcohol is a personal matter and no other person need to interfere in it. But if the statistics of motor accidents in my state is examined, it is easy to find that more than 90% of motor accidents are caused by alcoholics under intoxication. Drinking alcoholic is a personal matter, but driving the car under intoxication is not a personal matter. Killing other innocent people in intoxicating driving is not a personal matter. I am seeing a lot of alcoholics getting sick due to alcoholism. Who suffers then? The alcoholics alone? No. the government has to spend the taxpayer’s money for his treatment. His wife and children suffers. His friends are troubled. Then is it a personal matter alone? No.

Nothing is personal, because we are not an island.
Even an island is related to the water around.

The money we spend in our village affects the village.
The car we drive affects the air of our village.
The money we make and save invites the bank to our village.
Our demand for good education to our children causes the opening of a better school which is used by other children also.
Our life style affects others. Our presence in the village is one of the reasons for other people of better status to settle down there.
Our care for the society refines it.

Everybody has followers. We may not find any one walking after us every day. But everybody has followers. They in turn create more followers.
We are not alone. We create followers.
So our acceptance and rejections affect the surroundings. Our dreams and screams affect our society.

We are not a lonely island.

Professor Jacob Abraham

Like this blog?
1.       Leave a comment below
2.       Subscribe to my blogs
3.       Tell your friend.

No comments:

Post a Comment