Maybe it's not your case, but I believe we should all be regularly reminded that we are no better.
I know I do.
Nobody is inherently better than anybody else.
No one is inherently superior to another person.
Period.
No amount of wealth, knowledge, power, success, or anything material or immaterial makes you superior to another human being. No race, nationality, gender, or religion makes anyone superior to another human being. No role or position makes you better.
Simply, you are no better than anyone else.
We're all equal as human beings.
That sense of superiority we so easily develop is one of the root causes of so much suffering.
Within our houses and around the world.
That belief that we are better creates the psychological distance that enables people to justify or ignore others' suffering.
To the point that it becomes literal bombs, destruction, and deaths.
This weekend, seeing yet more evidence of how easily we inflict pain and destruction on a large scale, as if it were business as usual, I couldn't help but ask again: How could they? How could they sleep at night?
And then it struck me.
They think they are better.
But what about me?
Do I think I am better?
From my privileged position, sitting on a couch in the quiet countryside of a rich region in Italy, it's so easy for me to think I'm better.
But I am not.
I may have more than others. Know more than others. Even achieved more than others. I could even have done more good than others.
Still, I am no better.
I read the news and think many must be reminded that they are no better.
But we, too, must be reminded.
I am no better.
You are no better.