Do No Harm -- Do No Harm

[ Show ]

Support VoyForums

[ Shrink ]

VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, 2, 3 ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 20:10:19 06/09/06 Fri
Author: Chuck
Subject: Do No Harm

Do No Harm!

How many schoolyard bullies would there be if "Do No Harm" hung over the doorway of every school and institution in the world?

We seem to be living in a world where our culture keeps getting nastier every day. Everyone is only out for themselves, and we are either ignorant, our we ignore the harm we cause. Could it be simply because no one taught us otherwise?

Several years ago I read an essay that was written about a poem by Linda Ellis titled "The Dash". You can find her poem on her web site at: <a rel=nofollow target=_blank href="http://www.lindaslyrics.com/">http://www.lindaslyrics.com/</a>
The essay expressed the meaning of Linda's verse in very moving prose explaining that from the day of our birth to the day we pass on our day to day lives are not momentary periods in time that are forgotten; every moment of our lives accumulates to form the measure of our "Dash." What we do with our moments becomes in the end a measure of who we were.
Few of us ever consider the consequences of what we do with our moments, and how they may effect, not only our own Dash, but the world we are all an inherent part of. We are all entangled and imbedded in the very fabric of our Universe, and everything we do, or do not do, has a ripple effect on everything else.
When we are young it is hard to see our connection and the implications our actions have on the World we live in. Even to many who have reached a golden age it is not often apparent, and many live out their lives never realizing their connections, or the impact their lives have; whether for good or for not.
In the end, as we measure our own Dash, it will not be our momentary victories or our fleeting triumphs; it will be our failures and the harm we did to others that we will take to our graves.
It really does not matter how others will measure our Dash once we are done, but how we ourselves will measure it. It is how much harm we did to others that will haunt us in our final slumber. Will we rest well content in the measure of our Dash, or will we be tormented by our failures?

If we are to become a more evolved species we must begin to make better choices, and we simply must begin to treat each other, and all the other creatures who share this planet, with more respect.
If we cannot do good and leave this a better place for being here, the very least we can do is to attempt to Do No Harm, and leave it as good as we found it.
I know it sounds like a simple idea, but it just may be effective over the long run. At least it is a place to start attempting to change the increasing nastiness in the world.

The very first fundamental rule for living in this world should be Do No Harm.

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]