The person on the gurney (wheeled stretcher) is on their last trip. That is, they were about to die and knew it. They asked this paramedic to take them to the beach along the way, so they could see the ocean one last time.

There is tragedy in human life, and none as persistent as death. And so we need to help and comfort those at the end of their years, as this paramedic did, quietly waiting until the patient was ready. This was an act of mercy, and a deeply ennobling one: The patient was blessed; the paramedic became a better being.

* * * * *

Before going back to the mundane, please, think about what you might do for for a friend, neighbor, relative or acquaintance at the end of their days. Do not get morose; rather, imagine what uplifting thing you might do to help them, with their feelings, in their situation.

Old people are not fundamentally ‘other’ to young people. Their bodies are older, of course, and they’ve  accumulated far more experiences, of course, but inside, we’re all highly similar And yes, old people do enjoy play, as we see here.

A passage from a forgotten writer named Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. makes this point very nicely:

Don’t ever think the poetry is dead in an old man because his forehead is wrinkled, or that his manhood has left him when his hand trembles! If they ever were there, they are there still!

* * * * *

So, please keep this image in mind and spend some time focusing on people’s interiors, rather than their exteriors. That’s not the easiest thing to do, but the more we focus on it, the better at it we become. And it’s important, because the ‘inner man’ is what actually matters in most situations.

This is Alexander Milton Ross, a surgeon from Detroit who became known as The Bird Man.

In 1856, Dr. Ross began liberating slaves: Educated and rich, he would approach the owner of a slave plantation, requesting permission to study some interesting birds on their estate. Then he would wander off into the fields and trees, examining the area. Once night fell, he secretly told the slaves where they could find Underground Railroad stations, who to watch out for and who to trust. He would leave each slave with a knife, a compass, a few dollars, some food, and sometimes pistols.

What Dr. Ross did (multiple times) was highly illegal – many people who did similar things served long prison sentences at hard labor – but he did it anyway, convinced that enslaving humans was evil.

* * * * *

So, before going back to the mundane, please consider what actions you’d be willing to take, knowing that prison or worse threatened: Would you do it to save the world from annihilation? Would you to save your child or spouse? What else? Run through a scenario or two, including how you’d explain your choice to others.

This man was about to commit suicide. He had climbed to the far side of a bridge, where his next step was to death. But while he was there, passers-by came to him, hugged him, and kept him from jumping. Others tied whatever they could around him, so that it couldn’t happen.

We live in a difficult and often unkind world. Compounding that, we are all born with internal conflicts and swim in a sea of negativity and manipulation. For some of us, it becomes too much and they are tempted to escape the pain. But while these sad things are true, there is also a great deal of good in the world, including people who are open and eager to take benevolent action. And that is what we’re seeing here.

* * * * *

Now, before you go back to the mundane, please remember someone you helped, or saw being helped. Then, as you begin your day, try to find someone to contribute to. Any kind of help, in any amount, will a positive contribution to humanity and to your own development as well.

This set of portraits from the 1890s provides a very good lesson: These people posed in the overly serious manner of their time, but they were playful too, and that side of them broke through easily enough, as we see here.

The people of the past were not ‘other’ than us: they were us, in different circumstances. While there are differences between people in different eras, they are surface differences, not really differences in substance.

The fashions of our age – the ways ‘everyone’ behaves – will some day be gone, and will seem to our future counterparts as silly as Victorian manners do to us now. What actually matters is what’s inside of us: the kindness, willfulness and creativity we bring into the world. Conforming to an era is a waste to beings like us.

* * * * *

So, before going back to the mundane, see yourself as a being separate from the impositions of your time. Learn how to focus on your essentials, and to identify the mere impositions of an era. Determine to develop the former and slough-off the latter.

This is the Scuolo Grande di San Rocco in Venice, and it needs to be seen in person to be fully appreciated. But what’s especially interesting about it is that this was not a palace, it was a meeting room for merchants.

These merchants, partly by the accidents of place and time, were prospering mightily and decided that they wanted to beautify their meeting house. There may have been some lesser impulses involved (“Ours is better than theirs”), but the overriding impulse was to build beauty into their lives. They could have spent their money on other things, of course.

Seeing beauty as a regular part of our daily lives matters a great to us internally, as Goethe noted very well:

“A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul.”

* * * * *

So, before going back to the mundane, consider how you can build some beauty into your life. Pick something that appeals to you, rather than something that will impress or please someone else. What have you seen that resonated with something good inside of you? Get a copy and put it up.

This image speaks very clearly. The gentleman was a tourist in a poor country and ran across a very poor girl with no shoes. And so he took off his own and offered them to her.

In the modern West, “compassion” is forced upon people, and it is implied that they are very bad if they don’t eagerly comply. That has turned many thoughtful people against what is called compassion. Forced compassion, as it happens, is the enemy of organic compassion. Or, in other words: Compulsion negates compassion.

What we’re seeing in this image is real, unforced compassion. It is being expressed spontaneously, out of the goodness of this man’s heart, not by guilt and pressure. As a result, it carries a deep and abiding beauty.

Compassion is in us. It can and should flow out of us, freely. When that happens, the world is improved and we become better creatures.

* * * * *

Now, before going back to the mundane, please recall times when you showed actual compassion: not because people forced you to, or because of guilt, but because you wanted to help someone. Take some time replaying that in your mind. Or, imagine doing something like this. Thank you.

We live in a time of great abundance, which is a wonderful thing, and not something to apologize for. That said, we do sometimes lose appreciation for smaller things that remain wonderful. This is a boy who couldn’t get shoes during World War II. Upon finally getting some, his joy overflowed.

People have been making shoes for millennia, of course, but a modern, well-made pair of shoes is indeed a wonder. So are a hundred other things (like year-round supplies of fresh fruit) that many of us take for granted.

Our particular moment upon this planet is far better for goods than it was a thousand years ago, but certainly not nearly as good as it will be a thousand years from now. And while we should keep working toward a better future, we should also appreciate the things we have now… to richly appreciate them. And we should especially appreciate the men and women who discovered how to produce them, taught others, and gifted it all to us.

* * * * *

Before going back to the mundane, take a look around, wherever you are, and pick out something that makes your life massively better, but that would take you years to develop and create on your own, or even with competent others. Pull appreciation out of yourself; feel it, express it, and remember the feeling. Such upward swellings of the heart are what lift us above mere existence.

This man grew up very poor, and one of the great disappointments of his childhood was that he couldn’t get this lunchbox like the other kids. From an adult perspective a lunchbox is trivial, but to a small child it may not be. And sometimes those child feelings stick.

This man’s girlfriend, upon learning the story, went out and found one that remained in decent condition and bought it for him. Upon opening the gift, he wept.

Purging old poisons isn’t something we can always accomplish for others. Nonetheless we must try, because sometimes, as in this case, we do hit our target.

* * * * *

Crying may not be fitting in many situations, but if you cannot or will not cry – no matter your age – you are missing essential opportunities for growth.

This is the face of courage. Dr. Barry Marshall, a physician from Australia, discovered that ulcers were not caused by stress, spicy food and acid. Rather, he maintained, they were caused by the h.pylori bacteria. This contradicted established theories, and almost no one believed him. In fact, he and his partner, Dr. Robin Warren, were widely ridiculed.

After numerous difficulties, and because running a human test of his theory was illegal, he simply drank some h.pylori himself. He promptly developed ulcers. He suffered with them long enough to be properly tested, then took some antibiotics and just as promptly recovered. In the end, he and Dr. Warren received the Nobel Prize in Medicine.

Courage is not the domain of the movie hero; it’s the domain of the woman or man who can stand on their own, and against the world if necessary.

* * * * *

Now, before you go back to the mundane, please consider the situations where you stood against the crowd, or where you might in the future. These are the stories we need to run through our minds, and then to run through our lives. And again, large or small does not matter. In fact, starting small is better than trying to make a huge stand. Courage, like a muscle, needs to be built through consistent exertions, starting with the small and working up to the large.