ONE major mistake of many people, including me, is the thought that we can live peacefully on our own, far from the danger of the catastrophic events happening around us. With this thought in mind, we distant ourselves from the issues of the world, not minding to offer a comment or a critic, not attempting to meddle on misunderstanding, or remaining to keep silent in the midst of agonizing trouble, because we thought we will never get affected or perhaps because we understand peace as isolation or non-involvement.
Most of us lust for a peaceful life. That is, have a family and land a stable job we love. We do not want to be dragged into any kind of worry, distress, or anxiety far from the network of our loved ones because these are no way part of our desired peaceful life. We sneer at people who get involved in illegal drugs, in broken families of shameless parents, in teenagers who get pregnant in no time, or in crimes brazenly happening in the streets. We do not want to be part of any of this blunder so even if we witness a law-breaking incident, we keep mum just to get ourselves out of trouble. Yet in doing this, we fail to understand the real world. Our ideals then of a peaceful life is not rooted in reality but on fantasy.
There can be no individual peace without attaining communal harmony. Our lives, how it goes, mostly depends on the type of environment we have and does not rely solely on how we want to live it. We may want to give the best education for our children by sending them to prestigious institutions but we cannot control the behavior of their peers that certainly affects their learning. How do we deal with the change of character or behavior of this generation?
This is the reality of the environment. There is no real peace in a family while the neighborhood is mired in crimes. There is no peace of mind because at one point, a family member or even us, will get involved in some societal problem in the future. We might get robbed on our way home, have misunderstanding with an intoxicated neighbor, get into argument with a police officer, or get bullied in the social media.
In the case of bullying, the best way to deal with it is to face the situation. We might want to talk to the bully or report him/her to the authority. Once it is resolved, that’s is when we get a taste of peace of mind that is rooted in reality. We cannot have peace by avoiding confrontation because the reality is misunderstanding occurs even among family members.
The reality now is that the inflation is soaring high, there is an upcoming election and considering our culture, there is high probability that election-related crimes will also rise, the millennial are living third of their lives in social media, adolescents now are more aggressive and liberated so we have different set of values. This is the reality and once we find ourselves in the middle of any of this, we must give ourselves no choice but to confront and deal with it.
We fear that our precious peace will get disturbed when we involve ourselves but it is the only way to experience relief. We cannot shrink or cower in the comfort of our homes just to protect our so called peace.
Sometimes we cannot believe why relatives deceive other relatives just for a piece of land. Yet we know that ever since, some people are overwhelmed by greed, more so when it is about lands. The solution here then is not to get away with the issue by giving the land without due course only because we do not want misunderstanding.
Involvement in issues and in the daily activities in the society is not surrendering our safety, comfort, and peace. Life always has risks. We cannot isolate ourselves from the society and let the public officials and the courageous individuals settle the problems. Fear is holding us back so we must overcome it. Our environment speaks of how our lives go.
If our immediate environment is poor, it demands therefore of citizens who work hard for progress. If the community or environment is riddled with crimes, it demands therefore of citizens who are courageous to cooperate with the authorities to eliminate this crimes. The Philippines is a third-world country and this is a sad reality. Therefore it asks for Filipinos to even work harder. There are lot of crimes happening around, and therefore, be not be afraid to become a witness because it is what the environment demands. We cannot just say nothing and go on with our lives.
We have our own ideals on how we live our lives and sometimes we focus so much on this ideal that we forget what’s happening in our environment. We cannot plan something for ourselves or for our family, like an idea of peace and/or success, without considering the type of our environment we have. We cannot base our plans from the movies and television shows because we have a distinct type of environment. If our environment is not peaceful, we might want to set a lower standard or expectation of our desired peaceful and happy life. Or better yet, do something to change the environment.