Before you take an important decision, do you consult others? Whom do you tend to consult? Your parents? Friends? People who think like you? Only your own age group?
What have you learnt from these consultations? Did you make better decisions after consultation? Were you happy and satisfied that you talked things over with this particular person? Or, did his/her advice and suggestions prove to be inappropriate or inadequate?
Let us look at some of the most basic facts about human life.
When we are born, we are the most helpless creatures. Cats and dogs and donkeys and doves are far more independent at the start of life than we are. We depend on others for everything—except the basic biological responses, like, breathing, sucking, chewing, digesting food and excretion.
Everything else? We need to learn. To move, to walk, to talk, to keep a glass in our hand, to recognize people, and the far more complex activities, such as reading, writing, remembering what we hear and see, to cook, to drive, to heal wounds, …
In any of these areas, we depended on others.
When we fell sick, we were treated at home or taken to a doctor. To develop our mind, we learnt to read and write. We went to a special place called school.
And so on.
We learn from others all through life.
We are helped by others every single day.
I did not invent or make the computer I am typing with, nor the phone I use to contact dear ones. I benefit from others’ creativity—in travel, in medication, in the clothes I wear and the furniture I use.
Fr Joe Mannath SDB
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