From Mission Joy There's a concept that we have in South Africa, the concept of ubuntu. It says, a person is a person through other persons. I mean I could not speak as I am speaking without having learned it from other human beings. I could not think as a human being except through learning it from other human beings.
It is not where you live but how you live that is important. There are no Holy cities without a Holy people.
My puny human brain, just a few bucks worth of water, salts, and proteins, hung in there just fine against a jillion-dollar supercomputer.
People will forget what you said. People will forget what you did. But people will never forget how you made them feel.
We are game-playing, fun-having creatures. We are the otters of the universe.
As important as behavior is, most problems at home, at work, and in the world are not failures of strategy but failures of way of being. As we've discussed, when our hearts are at war, we can't see situations clearly, we can't consider others' positions seriously enough to solve difficult problems, and we end up provoking hurtful behavior in others.
When we start seeing others as objects, we begin provoking them to make our lives difficult. We actually start inviting others to make us miserable. We begin provoking in others the very things we say we hate.
Difficult people are nevertheless people, and it always remains in my power to see them that way...Seeing someone as a person doesn't mean you have to be soft...Even war is possible with a heart at peace.
When you begin to see others as people, issues related to race, ethnicity, religion, and so on begin to look and feel different. You end up seeing people who have hopes, dreams, fears, and even justifications that resemble your own.
People whose hearts are at war toward others can't consider other's objections and challenges enough to be able to find a way through them.
You care whether you are being seen as a person or as an object. In fact, there is little you care more about than this.