Just as Barbra Streisand sang in the movie, Funny Girl, people do really need people. We take walks down the streets in our neighborhoods and cities, and something that every walk we take has in common, is that we breathe when we do so. It's not that we breathe just air- but it's the feeling of meaning that we breathe. It's in everything we inhale and everything we exhale. We thrive for our meaning, and we find that in each other. That is what we digest when we close our eyes and think about our meaning. It's as if Barbara was singing to feel the meaning in her words.
People today post statuses on their Facebook's, talking about their lives and hoping to get a discussion started on the meaning of life. We read books that we can't even pronounce the titles of, because we're broadening our ideas and trying to cultivate an answer to our question. But the truth is, that we don't know. We all have different opinions about our lives and what the truth behind life really is, but can every opinion be correct? Is everything we come up with, on the dollar?
What if the meaning behind life truly was people needing people? If we all knew that, would we accept that we all need each other; and that every breath we take is so vital to the atmosphere and we can manipulate the change in it? If we all knew that, then there wouldn't be any segregation, any prejudice, and hate.
But I'm not asking a question. The statement though it comes across as a question, is more rhetorical, because there is no answer. How can you separate people based on their religion, political stances, sexual orientations, ages, wisdom, beliefs- when the truth simply is that everyone needs everyone. You can't label people because you need those people, and labeling them would only push them away.
See, the truth behind every hardship that we face, is in our neighbors eyes. And when you push your neighbor away, how can they help you? How can they stand up for you in a difficult time, and defend you- when you label them and separate yourself from them. There is nothing more cruel than belittling another human being. Opinions and bad taste are the same thing. Because it is our opinions that we cannot keep to ourselves, that give others a bad taste. And in that we are not looking for an answer but mainly asking a rhetorical question, one which no one will answer.
People are tired of reading posts on facebook about God and politics, because we have put a bad taste in their mouths. When we constantly belittle others through our social networking, we can't wash that taste out of the mouths of those that we have dehumanized and poked at. And when people stop paying attention to what we are saying, it's because there isn't anyone there to read them. Everything we wrote has no meaning anymore, and everyone we spoke to has gone.Then we wonder why we failed, why we aren't popular anymore. Why suddenly everything in the world doesn't revolve around us or our views. But it's in that precious moment, that we realize how much we really do need each other. And that inspires us.
It's like a new door has opened and there are more windows in the house, and suddenly our world seems so much brighter. In that moment we understand how to reach other, how to accept each other; how to know and love each other. Because it's through everything we now understand that we know how to be, and be in a world with others, thriving on the need for one another. And it all comes back to people needing people.
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