Love your neighbor, we are one people #124
Do you have a plan to be a better person? It's a constant evolution. Enjoy the trip, for the end is sure, we just don't know the when. How will you have lived? Will your mother be proud?
Jack Browne, Wichita Falls Times Record News edition, Sunday July 20, 2025
Be a better person. Many people want to do that. We owe it to our family, spouse, children, parents and grands – grandparents and grandkids.
What is your plan to accomplish that goal? Does it address your weaknesses? Do you review your progress with another person?
A pastor friend posted on Facebook, "We tend to judge others by their behavior and ourselves by our intentions."
Life can be viewed as a race, competing with others.
I get caught up in it as well, speeding up so another can’t get in front of me. But my vehicle’s no race car and I’m usually lapped a few times before my destination.
Then I’m carrying this chip on my shoulder, because second or third place isn’t winning. Perhaps my perspective, focus and goal all are wrong.
Grudges are like this. A coworker shared, “Unforgiveness is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.”
And “behavior versus intention” for most of us is a negotiation. Sunday, my priest’s homily shared the Parable of the Good Samaritan, Luke 10:25-37. Exploring the boundaries, the scholar asks “Who is my neighbor” when challenged to “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
Like the scholar, we usually know what we need to do. We just don’t want to work that hard to accomplish it. We expect our intention to count and advance our standing in the “race.”
We want to keep our grudges, and our intentions, pick the neighbors we like and distance ourselves from others.
Yet to be a better version of ourselves is a constant evolution.
Pope Francis’ writings include, “With charity and clarity we are all called to live in solidarity and fraternity, to build bridges that bring us ever closer together.”
We are one people at whatever level we interact. To ignore another in hope of better position in the race of life denies us the learning and insights that person can share. What awaits us with our choice may overcome our own limitations and allow further progress in our own journey.
Understanding that while we need others to mentor us — to help us see what we can do better — we can also mentor others ourselves, helping them in their quest of betterment. We grow as we learn and as we share.
As a popular saying relates, “Remember, happy people don’t always have the best of everything. But they know how to make the best of what they have.”
Life is a journey, enjoy the trip, see the sights, understand the wonders other see. The end will come soon enough.
Jack Browne is a community activist and former technology engineer, sales and marketing executive at Motorola and other top tech companies.