What We've Become

What have we become?

We’ve become a society that’s possessed by materialism and power. We crave wealth, we hunger for authority, we shout for attention.

We post countless selfies on Instagram for validation. We overshare our lives on Facebook, telling the world the best bits of our lives and hiding the dirty, moldy bits. We hug our insecurities and fears to ourselves, so afraid to be discovered – so afraid to be exposed as a fraud.

We have forgotten the basic things in life.

We have forgotten the very fundamentals of life.

To be kind.

To be patient.

To make another person’s life better.

We are so obsessed with pushing ourselves up we push others down. Consciously or subconsciously, we do that. We’re smug and self righteous, pompous that what we do is right. We believe we’re smarter, cleverer, above all, we are right. The sins we commit, there are justifications. We have not erred, we are the victims!

We have forgotten kindness in this world.

I truly believe having a kind heart is one of the most important assets a person can have.

I have not done anything particularly kind lately.

I have not visited any charity homes.

I have not even bought tissue paper from the senior citizens who go around hawker centres selling them.

I have not done anything where I can proudly say, I was kind. I helped. I brightened someone else’s day up.

We’re so consumed with cheering ourselves up that we’ve forgotten about other people. We’ve forgotten that when you genuinely help someone, you feel good. You feel better.

But we’re just consumed. And we’re consumers. We consume everything till we’re sick and tired of it, and we don’t know we’re sick and tired. We push down more things down our throats. We need more Prada bags! We need more alcohol! We need more clothes! We need MORE! MORE, MORE, MORE! We need more, even though we don’t have any more space. We need more commitments, more engagements with people, even though we barely have time to breathe. We need more, because it’s never enough. We’re gasping for oxygen, taking in as many deep breaths as possible, without realizing we breathe perfectly fine without us overdoing it. But we’re panicking, we’re scared, we’re little children again. And we pretend, to be grown ups. We pretend to be adults, to be all knowing. We kid ourselves that we’re wise, when we’re really all groping around looking for a light switch.

We’ve lost ourselves, and the scary thing is we don’t realize we’re lost. We think we’re on the right path, and this is the way it should be. We chase our dreams, no matter the cost. We’re hedonistic, lusting after the greater pleasures of life. We forget discipline, what we’ve been taught as children, as we spin faster and faster into this circle of confusion. We’re caught up in the moment. We don’t care about right and wrong. We close our eyes, we hashtag YOLO, we think it’s okay.

It’s not okay.

Everything has a price.

We need to fix this.  We need to peel off the unnecessary, and focus on the important things.

People are important.

Being kind to people is important.

Being good to people is important.

We know these things, we have no problems agreeing with it…but do we actually make an effort to be extra kind, or extra good? No. Most of us don’t. It’s just words, being spouted out.

This post is exactly that, just words spewed out, but I hope I’ll be able to translate my words into actions.

Thank you for reading.