Here is another example of not just kindness, but of enlightened self-interest. The elderly woman was eating by herself, something she did often. The young man, for both reasons noted above, asked to join her.

The truth is that old people have a lot to contribute to the young, and young people with sense will gather it up. On the other side of the table, this young man found eighty years of experience, happy to share. It took this woman decades – many decades – to learn many things. The young man, for merely the cost of a kind action, found access to them.

* * * * *

Before you go back to the mundane, consider that self-interest and kindness travel together, and that it’s not necessary (or even optimal) to give one up in order to get the other.

It’s far to easy to get dragged into the daily tumult of life on our planet, and that’s a mistake. Life here must be dealt with, but our minds and imaginations also need to get beyond it. We need distant stars to guide by… points of reference beyond of the mayhem. As psychologist Carl Jung noted,

It is possible to have an attitude toward the external conditions of life only when there is a point of reference outside them.

We need to see ourselves outside and above from time to time, just to keep our minds in a healthy state.

* * * * *

So, before turning back to the mundane, let your imagination spend a few minutes with this image. Turn down the lights and enlarge it. See yourself in the position of this astronaut: Floating, untethered, in the enormity of space, looking down on a world full of life… a tiny island of thriving inside an vast eternity.

Chiune Sugihara was a Japanese diplomat stationed in Lithuania during World War II. When the Nazis started rounding up Jews for execution, he spent 18-hour days, at great personal risk, signing travel visas for them… which was quite against the law.

When the embassy was closed some time later, Mr. Sugihara was still signing visas and tossing them from the train as he left.

* * * * *

Heroism finds people in many conditions and presents them with a choice: either do the right thing or don’t. Some people close their eyes and run from the choice. Others, like Mr. Sugihara, realize that this choice is fundamental to their being, and rise to it. So, before you go back to the mundane, prime yourself for hero challenges: decide that you will not close your eyes and turn away; that you’ll feel the fear and do the right thing anyway.

You are looking at a hailstorm in Tbilisi Georgia. The old lady couldn’t run and so became stuck in an injurious and dangerous situation. The young man rescued her.

There is a great deal that could be said about this image, but we can focus on one for today: The reverence for life, and particularly for human life. Human life is inherently valuable. We are, in fact, the only known creatures who can create at will. And that ability remains, even when our bodies begin to fail. And so, this is true for all of us:

Humans, alone in the known universe, are able to reverse entropy willfully. 

* * * * *

Before sliding back to the mundane, try to spend a few moments with this concept of willfully creating (and thus reversing entropy). It’s the kind of thing that takes time to really grasp, but will change you.

This is a document that permitted a Jew to escape Hitler’s death machine, as it was starting it’s movement across Europe. It was signed by Hiram Bingham IV, who disobeyed orders in order to save at least 2,500 innocent lives.

Bingham came from a very rich and famous family (his dad was a Senator, his mom an heiress, etc.), and so he was put into a responsible position in France as the war was unfolding. Seeing the plight of refugees (Jews and others), he broke the expectations that lay heavily upon him, engaged in a variety of intrigues, and smuggled thousands of seriously threatened people out of Europe.

For his efforts, Bingham was abruptly pulled from his position, transferred far away, and passed over for promotions. But while he had the ability to save innocent people, he saved them, at the risk of shame upon himself and his family.

At some point, every healthy and whole human being must be able to defy authority and do the right thing. If we cannot do that, we cannot become whole. Hiram (Harry) Bingham did precisely that, and we can too.

* * * * *

Before you go back to the mundane, replay some event in your life where you defied what was expected or forced upon you, and did what you believed was right. If you have to, imagine such an event, and live through it carefully. These are the things that make us better creatures than we’ve been.

This lady is arranging all the bags that come onto the conveyor with their name tags out, in position to be easily picked up. No one is requiring her to do this: she’s doing it because she wants to do a good job… because she enjoys doing her job well.

Work – all productive work – is the birthing of creativity into the world. A job well-done, as an old saying goes, is its own reward; and it truly is. Doing our work well – not just acceptably but well – demonstrates the quality of our internal life. This lady is showing what kind of being she is.

* * * * *

So, before going back to the mundane, think about whatever it is you do, and look for ways to make yourself proud of it. Find ways to bring goodness out of yourself. Your elderly self will bless you for it.

What we see in this child’s face is awe. And the fact that it’s a child’s face means that this isn’t a learned behavior, but something built into us… something gifted to us by nature. We are, that is to say, designed and constructed to experience awe, wonder, and other upward movements of the heart. In fact, we require these things: they extend us, they balance us, and they reach out to the best in others.

The more we discount such upward swellings and turn away from them, the harsher, colder and more legalistic we become. The more we accept them, seek them and share them, the better we function, the healthier we become, and the more we progress.

* * * * *

So, before going back to the mundane, search your memories and focus on times when you experienced awe, gratitude, wonder, appreciation, and other upward movements of your heart. Spend some time with them; let them spread through you and begin to heal you.

The young man in this photo was profoundly color blind. The older man was also, but was able to get a very special pair of glasses that allowed them to see the full range of colors as the rest of us.

Upon seeing colors for the first time, the young man broke down weeping, for the beauty and depth of it.

* * * * *

This is the right time to let your mind wander with analogies. To be blind to the depth and beauty of life, and then to see it… please spend some time on this if you can. Go back to the mundane slowly if possible.

This man drove over a mailbox, flattening it. Then he drove off. The people living in the house were furious, as you might imagine. But the man hadn’t simply driven away; he drove to Home Depot, bought materials, and was back an hour later, completely rebuilding the mailbox.

We’ve been trained in dark imaginings. Most of us, in fact, run directly to them. But they are not deserving of such devotion. If all that humans did were bad things, we’d have devolved into chimpanzees long ago. Humans are not simply bad.

* * * * *

Next time you find yourself jumping to dark imaginings – and you should definitely keep yourself aware of that tendency – replace it with images like this one… and the other images we post here. Humans are not dark, vile creatures; it’s far more the case that they are confused, overwrought and badly conditioned creatures. And those things are eminently fixable.

The lady in the black hoodie had a flat tire and was changing it herself. But she got stuck on the lug nuts. After a while with no progress, the men you also see in the photo pulled over and helped her.

There are more people willing to help than broadcasts would allow us to believe. Ruling systems have tried to monopolized assistance, and by it have crowded out a large number of decent people who’d jump at an opportunity to feel good about themselves.

There is a great difference in appreciation, gratitude and self-worth between individuals spawning their own goodness, and the operations of a goodness industry. The former generates new value in an almost-pure form; the latter compels people to pay for good acts they never see and play no part in.

* * * * *

Before going back to the hum-drum of the mundane world, consider how much satisfaction and warmth comes from situations like the one in this photo. Contrast that with do-gooder organizations… organizations funded with money forcibly removed from people… people who will never see it used.