- NEWSDAY.CO.TT - A la Une - 01/Jan 05:57

Let’s make others happy in 2025

THE EDITOR: It is normal for us to wish each other a Happy New Year and to be filled with hope that this year things will be better. Reality, however, usually places us on a path that is at variance with that which we anticipated: The broken heart when that person we loved and trusted just does not feel the way we do. The departure of family and friends to the great beyond. That illness that we never thought could be a part of our existence. The bills with no clear path to ever being debt-free. Life it seems has always found a way to transform our best wishes and hopes into despair and pain. Yet through it all we must find a way to continue, to live on, and to keep fighting. Wealth, power, intelligence, and understanding of spiritual things do not prevent us from the challenges of life. Running away to an island surrounded by nature does not help; life is simply going to unravel from how it is without our permission. And inevitably it ends without us having much to do with how and when it ends. With such a sad opening one may ask how does happy fit into this picture. The picture is one that tells us that no matter how great we think we are, we are human beings surviving on planet Earth. If we understand that it would be easy for us to see the need for us to love each other, to help each other, and to give meaning to our life by helping others enjoy their stay here on Earth. Stupidly, I say without apologies, some of us feel great because we have more than others, we accumulate riches that we can never spend in our lifetime, we are so filled with greed and the desire for more that we take pleasure in paying almost nothing for the services of others who are simply trying to survive. We feel better and empowered because we are better qualified than others, because our physical appearance is more acceptable to others than many, because we can go on a trip that many wish they can, because our house towers in elegance over those of others. After achieving all that we wished, we, like the vagrant, like the poor beggar, like those of royalty, like the soldier who fights without understanding why, we die. We have no idea, only a belief that there is a hereafter. My wish for 2025 is for mankind to see that we are all children of this great universe, and that our greatest joy and accomplishment in this lifetime will be realised if we do whatever we can to make others happy and to make this world a better place. If we were to ever put aside our selfishness, our greed and arrogance, the world will be happier and 2025 can be all that we wished for – and better. STEVE ALVAREZ via e-mail The post Let’s make others happy in 2025 appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.