Imagine if we lived this way

Imagine a world in which people genuinely wanted each other to succeed.

It sounds idealistic.

But when you think about it, we owe so much of what we have to the lives of people we will never meet…

Our ancestors built the farms that grew the food we ate today.

They died in wars, fighting for the freedom of people they would never know.

Someone invented the medicine that saved the lives of people you love.

None of us got here alone.

Yet somewhere along the way, many of us were taught that everything in life is a competition.

That for someone to win, someone else must lose.

But happy families don’t work like that.

Real friendships don’t work like that.

The greatest teams don’t work like that.

They grow because people lift one another.

Which brings us to today’s lesson.

Share your knowledge and skills.

Help build supportive neighborhoods.

Celebrate each others’ victories.

Because they are also yours.

Focus your effort on creating as much good in the world as you can.

Because that is what you are wishing others would do.

Never begrudge the success of others. It will only make you bitter and unhappy.

Life is too short.

We are all walking the same short road.

None of us knows exactly how much of it remains.

So while we are here…

Let us make the journey lighter for one another.

If enough people chose that way of living, the world would not become perfect.

But it would become kinder.

And for the brief time we are all fortunate enough to be here…

That might be the greatest legacy any of us could leave.