Tolerance

When I spend time on my own (which I try to do often as it is extremely relaxing) I find myself getting lost in endless thoughts about random things in the world.  Some of the things I think about are simple; like how does one manage to balance on two little tires while riding a bike?  Other times I think of complex things of which I am not sure there will ever be a "real" answer.  For example, the amazing process of pregnancy and how a baby grows really out of nothing yet ends up becoming a living, breathing, unique little person.

As I lay in the bath last night my mind started to think about all of the hate in the world.  Hatred of different religions or cultures, hatred of different lifestyle choices, or even a time when the world was filled with hatred toward people with a different color of skin.  Why do people choose to hate?  I remember growing up and learning about tolerance.  As a kid it was hard to understand what the word meant, but as I got older and began to experience different life situations it started to make sense to me.  Yet even though I now know what the word means, I seem to still find it so incredibly difficult to understand.

Is there really one "correct" way to live your life?  I mean think about it for a second.  There are so many hundreds of thousands of different cultures, and religions, and lifestyles in the world.  Can we really be  sure that the path we choose is going to be right; and better yet fulfilling for someone else?   Here's another thing to consider, just because somebody doesn't live their life the way you do, or believe in the things that you do, does that give you the right to consider them any less of a person than you are? How do we know what kind of a person they are if we can't have an open mind and give them a chance to share with us what they believe?

There are so many people throughout history that have questioned this very thing.  Some successfully, some unsuccessfully.  When I think of the word hatred  and remember someone who made a stance to stand up for something he believed in, I think of Martin Luther King Jr.  What an incredible person he was.  Can you imagine the amount of courage it took to stand up in front of a world filled with so much hatred and attempt to change the way people saw things and reconsider what they believed in? Absolutely amazing!

Alright, that's enough from me today. :)  Back to life now.....