madpole.com

Some people are born without some limbs or internal organs.
Some people lose their limbs or internal organs through the course of their lives.
They lack what some other people have.
But they also have what some other people lack.
One-eyed person will naturally wish to be a person who has 2 eyes.
But not a person who has 2 eyes but no limbs, arms or both.

A person with one eye will never regain the other eye.
A person with one limb will never regain the other limb.
Those people truly are lacking, lacking what MOST of human population has.

This, however, does not hold true when we consider human inner qualities.
Every coward has a brave dormant hero buried somewhere inside.
Every brave hero has a dormant coward buried somewhere inside.
Every coward is simply scared of his infinitive capacity for heroism.
Every hero is brave simply out of his infinitive fear of cowardice.

There is no such thing as “lack of” when it comes to human inner qualities.
The “lack of” is just the other, not currently visible, side of the same coin.
Turn the coward side of the coin and You will see the hero on the other side.
Turn the hero side of the coin and coward will be staring at You instead.

In generic terms we could call one side of the coin “capacity” and the other “manifestation”.
A kind and loving person ALWAYS has a capacity to be cruel.
A cruel person ALWAYS has a capacity to be kind and loving.
Nobody, nobody lack the coin though, just as no human in this world lacks a human organ called “heart”.

“Lacking compassion” then, one, if not most important human quality, is not an issue then.
Everybody possesses compassion, it is just a matter of how close to the “surface” it “bubbles”, and how much of it manifests itself outwards.
Every human is compassionate, including murderers, rapists and dictators.
But not all people had a chance, an opportunity to recognize it and express, or indeed,
learnt or were taught how to do it.

A cruel person can become kind and loving if/when shown that his cruelty is nothing else but misplaced kindness and love.
A coward can become a brave hero if/when shown that his cowardice is just misunderstood courage.

The thing about human inner qualities is that, unlike physical parts of our bodies, they can be “gained”, “lost” and “regained” - because those are just different sides of the same coin, but the coin is ALWAYS with us, even though we can see only one side of it at the time. We can lose the sight of one side of the coin, but never the coin itself.

We can, however, keep a watchful eye on that coin, so even if it gets flipped over we remember what the other, invisible side represents.
And by watching the coin we can also, slowly but surely, stop it from flip-flopping so often.
We can check on it once, twice, three times a day, every hour, every passing moment.
And while we are at it, we can also polish it a bit on each occasion, give it a bit more spark, more presence, more welcome.

And this is marvellous aspect of “growing old”. When our bodies slowly but surely disintegrate, when we start to lose teeth, hair, beautiful faces, nice bums and sexy six-packs - there is less and less of physical to grasp and be pre-occupied with - and our inner qualities gain better and better chance to shine through.

And with a help of our commitment and dedication we can not only help them to shine through - we can actually help them to grow and blossom. This process, very much like maturing wine, takes time and patient effort. But as any wine connoisseur will tell You: this effort is well worth its outcome.

(:o