Do People Change for the Worse When They Get Older?

I received this question from my student after he was touched by a story of a seven-year-old girl who placed parking tickets on cars’ windshields in her neighborhood, where she wrote “You parked very nicely!” with a heart-shaped drawing.

My student asked: Why do only kids come up with such sweet ideas?

Indeed, in many ways, kids are smarter than grownups, because when we grow up, we are under our ego’s control, and we thus do not see grownups doing such pleasant actions toward each other.

If we direct ourselves at positively connecting with each other above everything else, then we will see how much better, more harmonious, peaceful and joyful our lives will become.

For the time being, this girl wishes to express her good inclination, but we can expect that when she grows up, her evil inclination—egoistic desires to benefit oneself at the expense of others—will also grow in her. Then, we can expect that she will start giving out other kinds of items that might favor some people and go against others. We could expect that she would mingle in the divisive atmosphere that permeates our society, with certain group identities opposing and competing against others, which leads to quite terrible outcomes.

Our salvation from this mess we find ourselves in today is that we raise the importance of connection above our divisions. Otherwise, we will finish ourselves off. We are ready to build our success against others, but not against our ego that resides within us—and that very ego will bury us.

We thus need to realize that there is something much more important in life than being right, that “love will cover all crimes.” If we direct ourselves at positively connecting with each other above everything else, then we will see how much better, more harmonious, peaceful and joyful our lives will become.