Everyone's Everyone

¶ He was walking down the street on his way home, running through a mental checklist. Water the lawn, bring Mrs. Robinson's mail to her, walk the dog...
¶ A slight sprinkle of precipitation began coming down as he drew close to Robinson's house. He didn't think much of it (nor the mail truck) as he approached Robinson's mailbox. She was an old lady and had recently had a leg injury, so he'd offered to bring her mail to the door for her.
¶ As he came to from his thoughts he realized that the mailman, bringing a large package, had taken the mail to the door for Mrs. Robinson already. He checked that off the list.
¶ Continuing on his way home he finally noticed the rain as it was picking up. "Hmm" he said to himself, "Water the lawn... check."
¶ Shortly after getting home, one of the neighborhood boys, Andy, came and offered to walk his dog. He accepted the offer. "Check."

¶ Whoever does something gets it done. A simple thing. We needn't do everything ourselves. Some tasks though, involve a certain person doing a certain thing. Somebody else may still be able to do the thing, but it wouldn't complete the task, because the thing alone is not the task. Homework would be an example of that.
¶ Anyway, I only open by mentioning that because I think that idea may have been one of the catalysts for the idea I'm about to explain.

¶ She sat on a park bench, watching the people go by. A friend of hers came along and joined her. Watching a child fly a kite, her friend asked her if she'd ever flown a kite as a child, and she answered, "No."
¶ "Do you wish you could have?"
¶ "I'm happy with the childhood I had. I flew no kites, but that child flies one for me."
¶ "But," her friend argued, "If he flies it instead of you, you can only experience watching him fly, not know what it's like to do it yourself."
¶ "That's all right. He can know what it's like for me. There are an infinite number of things that I'll never get a chance to do myself, but that's why it's so great living in a world full of other people."
¶ The two sat silently for a time, watching the people in the park. As a rich and powerful lady passed, her friend had a thought. "Do you ever feel envy? Jealousy? I mean, being willing to let other people experience thing for you and all?"
¶ "Only when I'm not thinking logically" she answered.
¶ Then a beggar came along.

¶ It's so wonderful being human. It's such a marvelous race to number myself a member of. As my life goes on I find fewer and fewer things that I cannot find enjoyment in. Everything this life has to offer is so extraordinary.
¶ Everyone's everyone. We are all human, and all so similar to each other, even with our many differences. People of every culture, every religion, every time period... It means so much to be human. People fighting side by side in a war, or fighting against each other. The slave, the master, and the volunteer. The holy man and the sinner.
¶ No matter the condition of the world, each person has the choice of whether or not to be the best they can be; and the freedom of many other choices also. We all have similar potentials.
¶ The psychologist Carl Jung suggested that we all have a personal unconscious that is unique to each individual, as well as a collective unconscious that is universal to all human beings. No matter how different two people are, their collective unconscious is still the same. Much of what we are is also in other people, so when we wonder why somebody else does something, the answer may well be found within ourselves.
¶ Being humans, we all have our similarities and differences. We share this world like thoughts share the space in our heads. Sometimes we don't quite understand each other, but more often then not we don't understand ourselves either.
¶ Let me finish the story of that girl in the park.

¶ She stood from the bench and walked to the beggar. "Friend" she said to him, and held out a lunch sack. "I made this for you."
¶ He took it and peered inside. Then he grunted and walked away with the food.
¶ "Why'd you try to help him?" her friend asked. "It's his own choices that have gotten him where he is. He's not even thankful."
¶ "That's all right. I'll be thankful for him. He's made his choices and I've made mine. We've all gone where our choices have taken us." Then she left the park without further explanation. She was satisfied with what she had chosen, even though her friend still did not quite understand.