Listening to the news, I hear one type of view presented.
Watching a movie, (Finding Happiness), about the Ananda community presents a different view.
Thinking about how I raised my children presents a third view.
Each view represents a philosophy which leads to certain practices.
The basis of each viewpoint is highly significant.
Who is important in the world, in the community, in the family?
Are there some who are more important than others?
Are there some whose needs are more significant than others?
Each country and organization operates according to how it thinks about its members.
When I was teaching music to three hundred pre-schoolers each week, I came to the conclusion that everyone is precious.
We grow up from being precious pre-schoolers to being precious adults.
We are precious at all the stages in between.
Since then, I have adopted the viewpoint of, how do I treat everyone as precious?
How do I show that I value them?
My expanding view sounds something like this: What if we treated everyone as precious all the way from their earliest moments all the way throughout their lives?
What new policies would result?
What kinds of training and evaluations would be possible?
What new innovations would we see from really happy, secure and respected populations throughout our communities all over the world?
As I practice my view of the people around me, they feel it.
From time to time, I read about companies and organizations which operate from this basis and enjoy better business practices and better profits.
I am certainly looking forward to seeing this idea become the deep reason for all civic and business practices.
What an amazing world we live in where this is an actual possibility.
© 2014 Kathryn Hardage
