CARING

It is apparent that life demands a great deal of care. Most prominently, and perhaps first acquired through the parents or guardians’ guidance is the care for one’s body.? Prior to that is the care for Mother’s milk and the nipple of her breast or of the bottle. Care for one’s parents is perhaps simultaneous to that, but more consciously later in one’s development.

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Getting back to the physical body, that requires a great deal of care throughout one’s life.? In fact, the more one acquires the knowledge and discipline of caring for the body and all its varied needs, the more beneficial, the less painful and long- lasting life becomes. Naturally, this is a continual learning until death removes one from this urgent necessity. Of course, many of us abuse the body through a variety of harmful behaviors. Caring for the body is an aspect of caring for oneself, but it does not end there. Caring for one’s self also includes one’s psychological, social economic and spiritual condition as well, and a great deal of our time and energy is devoted to these endeavors.

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But this is only a small aspect of life’s caring demands. How about caring for our family and all its divergent beings, for our neighbors, our community, our nation, for the well-being of the world and certainly for our environment – for the earth and all its creatures, even for the air, water and soil of the land. Caring for our government and its institutions, and for all the people who make living even possible – all those who work for the local, state and federal governments, and yes, even the politicians. How about all the workers – the people who make the steel for our sky scrapers, the trash collectors, the clerks in our super markets, the barbers, the dry cleaners, the bus drivers, the philanthropists, the electricians, the plumbers, the mail men and women, the capitalists and on and on and on. All those millions who diligently go to work and do their jobs every day to make our lives sustainable - livable.

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How about caring for the poor, the hungry, the mentally ill, the physically disabled, the homeless, the x-criminal, the drug addict, trans and gay people, the veteran and those that have been injured in the defense of the county, all those who live under cruel and despotic dictatorships and cannot express their beliefs and ideals without severe punishment and so on.

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Let us not forget the importance of caring for righteousness, truth, fairness, justice and democracy. How about caring and providing respect to all our ancestors and past generations of beings who have through their at times heroic efforts all the material, social and moral benefits that make our present lives that more livable.

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Lastly, let us not deny the care for our material possessions and the material implements of daily life such as one’s car, house, kitchen utensils, roads, buildings, bridges, buses, trains and airplanes, appliances, etc., and even one’s clothing. I recall one day looking at the clothing in my closet and feeling how much I appreciated them. Taking care of my clothing was a lesson I finally learned after my marriage, where previously my dear Mother would constantly badger me to hang up my clothing rather than just throwing them down on a chair.

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Obviously, there is much to care about and many choose not to. There is choice in what we care about or not care. One can see this dynamic being displayed in everyday life. An example of this lack of caring can be seen in the degradation of our environment, the extinction of its creatures and the pollution of the very air, water and soil that is ongoing through climate change and the warming of the planet through our carelessness. And there is much that lacks caring in our society – the homeless, the poor, the mentally challenged, the high cost of living – housing especially and so much more.

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What does this care consist of? Certainly one needs be aware and understanding of the plight as well as the needs of others and of all of life itself, but also maturity of being -? empathy, thoughtfulness, consideration, compassion, kindness,? perseverance, tolerance and love…for sure lots of love! It appears that a considerable amount of time and energy needs be devoted to life’s continual and all-pervading demands to care. One’s caring does have its rewards, and gives back in a multitude of beneficence like good health, well-being and longevity for the individual, and even more a benefit to one’s friends and relatives, one’s community, one’s nation and the world in general. One develops this caring attitude not for thought of its rewards although there are many, but for the act of caring itself.

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It is also worth noting that we as individuals are equally cared for by numerous? others, by the earth and life itself, but that is a story for another time.

In the final analysis, caring for others, for the earth and all the creation is really caring for oneself for we are not separate, but are truly part and parcel of everything that exists.

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P.S.: Careful and careless are two other words re: care and caring. Surely, being careful is also most important. My teacher has a saying concerning this – “My bare feet, step lightly on life’s path lest the thorns lying in the way may murmur at being stepped upon by you.” Being careless speaks for itself and unfortunately there are many who are.

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