Growing as people and communities
Some time ago Pope Francis used a strong and worrying expression: “We are living in bad times.” Pandemics, wars, migrations, poverty, unemployment… they invade the news every day, so much so that “depression” is considered the first disease in Europe, and one of the most frequent in the world. Many times in the history of humanity we have gone through dark and bad moments. Every time, to get out of it and move forward, we appealed to education, as a human tool to correct the course, get back up, resume the journey.
Yes, because educating does not just mean helping others to express the best of themselves, but represents a broader concept that also includes care and interest towards the world, the good, in short, towards people.
Caring for others presupposes interpersonal relationship: paying attention and interest in the world of others requires the ability of having empathy and compassion.
On the other hand, the fact that the crisis is above all educational is demonstrated by many scholars, who foresee a threatening and disastrous future if the relationships between people, nations, states, as well as with the environment and the territory are not changed.
Here are some founding principles of human beings:
1) We are relational creatures: we have a body, a psyche, a conscience that push us towards others and develop in relationships. All our pores call to love and each one preserves the project of human unity as universal brotherhood as a poignant desire. How important it is then to educate children to consider their partner as co-essential for growth.
2) We are creatures programmed for love: who is loved feels good, fulfilled and feels the beauty of life that envelops him: why? Because we are programmed by a software called love. How many times, in fact, have we set love in motion when we have made ourselves available with any act of generosity towards others and have seen the circle of life and generosity resume in a contagious way?
3) We are creatures who feel joy in the truth: whenever we are authentic with ourselves and with others, we feel the sense of our being a person and a force envelops us making us feel the joy of bearing witness to the unity. Joy then is the identity card of those who live fully, because it represents the meaning of living.
4) We are creatures who can improve: we know that our person is on a journey and is not yet fully realized and selfish tendencies often push us towards evil (which is essentially the absence of good, the loss of the project of ‘love’) causing suffering to us and others. And experience tells us that mistakes are our traveling companion. At the same time, however, we understand that starting over, repairing, is also our traveling companion. In short, we are on the way towards an ever greater capacity for love and slowly, albeit with difficulty, selfish tendencies are fading.
5) We have a third ear: the great poet Fernando Rielo said that “the human being is a finite person open to the infinite”. It is thanks to the internal “third ear” that we can listen to the heartbeats of the realities that matter. The inner “voice” has only one goal: to fulfill us in love. On the other hand, all religions and great thinkers appeal to an interiority that must be listened and educated.
These fundamental truths reside in everyone’s heart and accompany life towards the future. Fundamental truths are like beacons on the road that illuminate the path and that can help humanity get back on the path, which we hope will be brighter.
Yes, because educating does not just mean helping others to express the best of themselves, but represents a broader concept that also includes care and interest towards the world, the good, in short, towards people.
Caring for others presupposes interpersonal relationship: paying attention and interest in the world of others requires the ability of having empathy and compassion.
On the other hand, the fact that the crisis is above all educational is demonstrated by many scholars, who foresee a threatening and disastrous future if the relationships between people, nations, states, as well as with the environment and the territory are not changed.
Here are some founding principles of human beings:
1) We are relational creatures: we have a body, a psyche, a conscience that push us towards others and develop in relationships. All our pores call to love and each one preserves the project of human unity as universal brotherhood as a poignant desire. How important it is then to educate children to consider their partner as co-essential for growth.
2) We are creatures programmed for love: who is loved feels good, fulfilled and feels the beauty of life that envelops him: why? Because we are programmed by a software called love. How many times, in fact, have we set love in motion when we have made ourselves available with any act of generosity towards others and have seen the circle of life and generosity resume in a contagious way?
3) We are creatures who feel joy in the truth: whenever we are authentic with ourselves and with others, we feel the sense of our being a person and a force envelops us making us feel the joy of bearing witness to the unity. Joy then is the identity card of those who live fully, because it represents the meaning of living.
4) We are creatures who can improve: we know that our person is on a journey and is not yet fully realized and selfish tendencies often push us towards evil (which is essentially the absence of good, the loss of the project of ‘love’) causing suffering to us and others. And experience tells us that mistakes are our traveling companion. At the same time, however, we understand that starting over, repairing, is also our traveling companion. In short, we are on the way towards an ever greater capacity for love and slowly, albeit with difficulty, selfish tendencies are fading.
5) We have a third ear: the great poet Fernando Rielo said that “the human being is a finite person open to the infinite”. It is thanks to the internal “third ear” that we can listen to the heartbeats of the realities that matter. The inner “voice” has only one goal: to fulfill us in love. On the other hand, all religions and great thinkers appeal to an interiority that must be listened and educated.
These fundamental truths reside in everyone’s heart and accompany life towards the future. Fundamental truths are like beacons on the road that illuminate the path and that can help humanity get back on the path, which we hope will be brighter.
Ezio Aceti
psychologist
