Do people look back on their lives and say, “I wish I would’ve gotten an ‘A’ in that class”, “I wish I had put in more hours at the office to get that raise” or “I wish I had won that award or been recognized for skill and excellence” in one thing or another? No.
When people look back on their lives, they wish they would have spent more time with their family, a certain friend or someone in need. They wish they would’ve worried less and laughed more.
Perhaps they wish they would have taken more risks, followed a passion and ignored the unsupportive voices around them. Maybe they wish they would
have paid greater heed to the peaceful voice inside rather than the multitude of loud and busy sounds and voices around them.
The gift of human existence is that it is shared with others. We have taken too seriously the “sapiens” aspect of our species at the expense of really understanding, valuing and practicing the art of community and compassion.
Perhaps Descartes can be blamed for this, having said “I think, therefore I am.” Am what? Alive? Conscious? Happy? What if we believed rather that “I love, therefore I am,” or “I feel/experience/share, therefore I am?”
Indeed, doesn’t every great religious tradition hold that we are all to “be love” in the world? Even and especially to our enemies we are to be love. Therefore we are to be love and light in the classroom, in our homes, in our workplace and in the civic arena.
It may be easy for some of you to brush my message off as fluffy or romantic. But love is more than candy boxes or idealism. Real selfless love requires us to move, take action and get outside the box or bubble to which we are accustomed.
Love, rather than prestige or victory ought to be our aim in choosing a career and conducting ourselves in the civic and professional world.
This vocation is no easy task. It is not comfortable and it promises no stability or financial security. Yet we have all crossed paths with someone who has committed him- or herself to a life of love and integrity. Those are the refreshing beings with whom we wish we could spend more time.
It is only by manifesting thought into action that we will ever achieve a life of meaning. Life cannot be lived on autopilot.
Do not retire yourself to a life of security and comfort, we are meant for more than that. Your education at these two institutions goes far beyond the critical thinking skills you learn in the classroom. Those would be useless without a fine-tuned intent on using your acquired skills for the benefit of others.
What is calling you into the realm of the uncomfortable, the free, the fully alive and lov- ing misfits? Can you leave your ego behind and boldly walk the talk?
This is the opinion of Anna Schumacher, a CSB senior.