Well of course that's a modern idiom that is well known.
I'm not trying to regurgitate idioms and get everyone all excited about common sense notions though..
However, it is ironic to me that there's a heavy trend in effect on Facebook and Tumblr. They are filled with those ridiculous picture quotes that usually have no connection from the picture to the quote. Even though everyone finds the time to share them as if they are an expression of their own creativity, I find the quotes repeated with an endless amount of pictures.
You can call my response to those things a bit of angst, only because I have done sets of something similar. Though I put a heavy emphasis to the pictures depicting exactly what the quote says, which are my own words, then I back it up with Biblical scripture (which was to suggest that the ideology itself is ancient and solid and worth looking through).
Anyways, I am taking a well known idiom and amending it because I feel there's something more important. I would say that it is better than the original, but I'm not going to suggest it because some people may disagree with me for very understandable reasons.
Who hasn't heard someone say that the world would be a better place if we all learned to love each other and our world better? It may seem like a silly notion in some ways, but I think it is true. It's ironic that it hasn't been put to the test as a whole, even though so many people refuse to give up their endeavor to teach the ideology. Lately I am seeing an increase of people taking the stance that the idea of change needs to come from the inside to affect the outside world. I totally agree with the logic that the world can only be manipulated by external acts whereas changing your individual character traits will bring about long-term change. Change that is seen through generations and maybe even cross cultural boundaries. A good example is the effect certain individuals have had on history, in good ways and in bad ways.
It is in the interest of being realistic for me to emphasize that letting people live doesn't necessarily mean that you're letting them live a healthy, fulfilling, and maturing life. In fact, you can let someone live yet still enslave, oppress, tyrannize, and emotionally abuse people. You can do it without it being obvious and you can do it without society objecting to your methods. In fact, you can do it under the guise of moral righteousness and supposed gender appropriate, naturally ordered coherency.
However, we all can agree that what you do doesn't mean what you are doing is the best thing for an individual or the best thing for human development as a whole.
It is really simple to articulate this. All you have to do is compare parenting behaviors of any kind. You can go to the extremes to illustrate the point, but going to extremes doesn't define what is in between.
Isn't the greatest challenge of parenting within dealing with the unique personality traits and learned behaviors of the child? Some may say it is just a matter of shielding the child from undesirable influences while others may say it is a matter of connecting with the child intimately. I haven't seen any single method that stands out more than a sincerely loving parent.. Just as I have yet to find the 'perfect' parents.
Moreover, the use of parenting 'standards' is only a way to illustrate my point, it isn't my point in itself.
What I find peculiar, troubling, and even mysterious is how much human society throughout history has tried to dictate what is proper for humans. In the modern world, we see disagreement of how families should look, how governments should function, how people should be disciplined, and how every little actions should be conducted. It is no secret that there are people who are paid to decide, as some figurehead that has authority, what can and can't be done. To go against the understood standard is to risk social suicide or worse.
I am not exactly a humble person by any respect of the word. I feel that my greatest trial in life is to humble myself and because it is so important it affects most of what I do. Some people disagree with me about my self-proclaimed assessment of what I lack, however I have seen through my own crap to know that there is a disconcerting similarity of my behavior to my perceived troubles. Moreover, it is the love of people that has helped me work this 'kink' out of my system.... And I still have a long way to go still.
I have personally come to understand the importance of loving people, regardless of how well I am connected to them. I don't prioritize in any way, even though the types of love I bring are extremely different because of what is not appropriate in some situations. Which if that seems contradictory, I'll just say that I can't treat everyone with romantic love and it not have implications, even though I can treat the one I show romantic love to with the same base-line respect that I will to a stranger or my own family.
In the end..
I see it completely legitimate to surrender my pride of judgment to the conviction of compassion.
Though I may not agree with what I hear or what I see, I also don't make an excuse to withhold what really matters. So please, try it out.
Live and let Love.
