Today we will visit a land where everyone put themselves first and country last. Let’s call this place ‘I-land’, the citizens are dealing with an outbreak of crippling and contagious  Me-first-i-tis. The following are the symptoms:

• Corruption
• Drug trafficking
• Increasing income gaps
• Rising Crime
• Domestic violence
• Segregation
• Fraud
• Child Abuse
• Low productivity
• Lawlessness

Most of these symptoms are apparent in all parts of the I-land in varying degrees. During the plague of Me-first-i-tis  I-landers can faced economic instability,  social uprisings and violence. They complained to the nations’ leaders asking them to fix the problem but the symptoms persisted.

There was only one remedy- the Golden Rule, ” Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”. In local parlance they say it in the reverse, ‘What yuh don’t like for yuhself, don’t do to other people’.

This is how they recovered:

Step 1  I-landers put themselves in the other person’s position. The ‘other person’ included fellow tax payers, road users, unemployed youth etc.

Step 2  I-landers then asked themselves ‘what would I want for myself if I was in this position?’

Step 3  Then they set out, as best as they could, to provide that which they would want for themselves. They were careful to avoid quick fixes and self-promotion.

Government  officials demonstrated integrity and  government workers provide timely, quality service because they were considerate of tax payers

Drivers were careful, patient and always sober because they were considerate of other road users.

Unemployed youths got jobs, training, words of encouragement, sound advice because elders remembered that they were once young and needed these things.

As a direct result of the Golden Rule, corruption, crime, youth delinquency and road accidents decreased dramatically. All other symptoms subsided.

Side effects: I-landers occasionally experienced ingratitude and suspicion from others but they continued applying the Golden Rule and consulted with the Great Physician.

I-landers realized that Life is made up of the little things like being considerate of others.

“Importance of Little Things

Life is chiefly made up, not of great sacrifices and wonderful achievements, but of little things. It is oftenest through the little things which seem so unworthy of notice that great good or evil is brought into our lives. It is through our failure to endure the tests that come to us in little things, that the habits are molded, the character misshaped; and when the greater tests come, they find us unready. Only by acting upon principle in the tests of daily life can we acquire power to stand firm and faithful in the most dangerous and most difficult positions.”

Excerpt From:“Help In Daily Living.” v1.0. White Estate, 2013. Check out this book on the iBooks Store it’s FREE!!

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