Truth or Trash: Integrity and Values in Today’s World is Losing the Battle
In a world that is based on financial accumulation, instant gratification, and superficial fulfillment how does one connect with old fashion morals, values, and community? This has been a question racing through my mind the last couple days.
As a single young professional woman in a city that is based in cliqued groups of wealth and social status with a strange air of superficial energy I have been trying to make sense how I’ve become dissatisfied from what really matters in life.
Bring brought in a strong European family there wasn’t a lot of personal choices growing up and when choices were presented they were limited. The core importance of family, respect, community, and connection were the values that were most important not having everything I wanted.
As I grew up and my eyes opened to the outside world and what it really had to offer I found myself rebelling against everything I was taught as a child and teen to discover how far I could really go in life. Many times it brought me to situations that results in some heavy consequences and others brought me live and discover different cities and cultures in the world, work with some amazing people, and discover what my full potential really was, but it wasn’t until the last couple years that I realized that had I not been conditioned with self discipline and family values I would not have pushed as hard to spread my wings but still reminded grounded in who I was and what I had to offer this crazy world of ours.
Working with young people and communities that truly suffer from the lack of basic needs I was forever grateful and always willing to go above and beyond the call of duty which many people found noble and inspiring but which I believed was my duty as a human being who was part of a community. Recently however, I have spend a good amount of time outside of my work and connected to people who were not brought up with strong family values; people who live in the world of money, gain, power, appearance, and who’s integrity although present was based on instant gratification and a “me first attitude”. I have spend time watching television, which I never really have in the past, and found myself flipping daily through the newspaper seeing what the world reads on a daily basis and hours watching how people interact and communicate with one another. I thought since I finally had the time I might as well see what I have been missing. What I found disgusted me. Not only did I see what I had not been missing, I found that I had become self absorbed, disconnected from family and real friends, only interested in superficial banter; seeking instant gratification in all areas of my life. In a matter of weeks I had become completely barriers my values and became in a sense broken. After having this realization I spoke to a dear friend who told me to pick up the book “The Art of Possibilities” by Benjamin and Rosamund Zander.
Benjamin and Rosamund talk about social justice, values, connection, and contribution to the world throughout this amazing easy to read book. After reading the book I realized how amazingly disconnected I could be if I didn’t pay attention to balance in life. It made me realize how the world’s injustices can cause people to detach from their core. Strong family upbringing or not!
After a week being frustrated and powerless I decided to take some action and start doing some of the things that were important to me, the same way I work with my clients. I made lists of things that were important to me in my work, in relationships with people, and in my physical, mental, and spiritual self. That Saturday a friend and I hiked the Chief up in Squamish and sitting up there on top of that mountain over looking the valley below I reconnected with what matters. I realized that many people sit on the top of their own world and are looking down as a way of being literally on top of the world but when I looked down I became scared of how small I really was in the larger scheme of things and what I could offer or contribute even though small was what mattered the most.
Day in and day out I’ve seen people suffer from unfulfilling lives. Being it a single woman like myself sick of the lack of dating options in Vancouver or the man feeling limited in his career, or the couple that is married and deciding to give up, or the young girl thinking she has had enough of this life and wants to leave the pain. All have the same core issues of being disconnected much like I did. They all wanted something or someone to give them more than they were willing to contribute either to their own lives or to those around them.
Too many people get caught up with how to be, what to wear, and where to go that they either get eaten by the desire and live as shallow as they can or rebel against it all to find freedom and connection. Yet that misguided want to feel complete what often is missed is the personal values and integrity that will ultimately bring them to the real fulfillment.
Be it political matters, financial or housing crisis, famine, abuse, crime or depression we live in a world that continuously wants and needs more. People will go to any lengthens to pay the bills (as I’ve recently discovered the magnitude of this)and to feel like they are on the top of whatever circle they are in, which shows more about the human character than we tend to admit but few people will take the time to exam their lives to gain a deeper value in life and connection to community.
There are many places in Vancouver that are looking for volunteers why not search for one that will spark your passion for life and what really matters or right a list of all the things that are truly important to you and make it your mission to connect to all of them.
