Umair,

As an American it is hard to hear what you have written. There is obvious truth in much of what you say; threads that lead into a history of my conditioning and my origins.

My Germanic heritage eludes me in ways I cannot know and my capitalistic American background seems to have spoken more loudly to you. I want to say that I hear you and if we were together, face to face, I would want to know more of what you think and how you feel.

I was told by my older brother and my father to get a good education so I could get a good job, yet, I know many who have had good educations who are now struggling to pay off the debt that education cost them or their families. What I’ve learned since then is the intrinsic difference between being valuable to the marketplace and being worthy to myself. The former can make one rich. The latter can make one fulfilled. I am working toward the latter.

“person holding 101 Essay that will Change the way you Think book” by Thought Catalog on Unsplash

I also know this; that each time I look into the eyes of another man, resonating with something I see or feel, I am actually seeing its origin in myself. If I see greed in a man’s action, or I see selfishness in his disposition, I believe that I am seeing a piece of myself, a piece I may not at all want to acknowledge, but it is there just the same. How else could I recognize it?

So, my judgment of others has grown into a lesson for me and the questions I ask when I feel all that you have described, as true as it may be, is…where do those elements show up in my life? Why do those actions or feelings resonate with me, positively or negatively? Why do they beg the reaction I am giving them? What is it that I must learn from what I am experiencing?

I want to thank you for opening up an insight for this American, a man who would be described as a lower middle class, uneducated man, who seeks nothing more than to live in peace, to live not in the riches of monetary value, but in the real richness of what your underlying message speaks to me…the harmony and wealth of the heart…the human spirit of peaceful coexistence!

Thank you!

May peace always be with you!

Bruce