When addressing people do you make distinctions? Do you see each person as special? Are you condescending with some? Do you pay attention to how they look and speak? We all have some of these concerns. We ought however to look beyond appearances. People should be treated with the utmost respect. These are lessons we have to put into practice when being with people.

Do you dazzle the world with your talent? Robert Browning (1812 – 1889) did this with poems, plays, and pamphlets. His wife Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806 – 1861) was more successful than him with her works. In Sonnet 43, she expressed a limitless love:

With my lost saints – I love thee with the breath,

Smiles, tears, of all my life! – and, if God choose,

I shall but love thee better after death.

There was excellence in this special love which she shared. It was definitely a supreme love that knew no boundaries nor distinctions. She gave her utmost for the love of saints.

Cooperation & Control

Why do we control people? When the best results come when we cooperate in the workplace, at play, and sports. Farm worker, labor leader and civil rights activist, Cesar Chavez (1927 – 1993) observed, “From the depth of need and despair, people can work together, can organize themselves to solve their own problems and fill their own needs with dignity and strength.” By not differentiating between management and workers, but with cooperation, officials bring dignity, to a working environment.

Brazilian novelist and lyricist, Paulo Coelho (b. 1947) notes, “I can control my destiny, but not fate. Destiny means there are opportunities to turn right or left, but fate is a one way street. I believe we all have the choice as to whether we fulfill our destiny, but our fate is sealed.” Coelho cites choices we make, for better or worse, in life. He stresses its importance, for their selections determine the nature of our relationships. We must aim to make no distinctions between the importance of the work of a janitor and that of his boss. Every person should be viewed as contributing his or her best to the common good.

Put Wings On Ideas

It takes love to put wings on our ideas. How persons view the world are important. It’ll not be in our best interest like novelist and poet, Thomas Hardy (1840 – 1928) who saw the world governed by sheer chance and natural laws. Life isn’t a series of coincidences, pessimism, and irony. That’s why in loving Christ we are made whole. We discover that divine realities govern situations. These are the sort of wings to put to our talents in dealing with others. People, regardless of their class, distinctions, and creeds, ought to be loved, cared for, and cherished.

With Love

Persons are to love one another. Carp diem is a Latin aphorism which means living to the fullest right now, having the opportunity, to seize the moment. People’s success isn’t merely, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die,” stated by Roman poet, Horace (65 – 8 B.C.). It’s much more than that – it’s being able to capture the true essence of life. Therefore it’s imperative that we are active and caring members of society. Throughout life’s journey, we ought to love one another, and resist making distinctions about people. Jesus Christ urged us to love our neighbor as our self. Then, let your love be like that of poet, Christopher Marlowe (1564 – 1593) captured in “The Passionate Shepherd to His Love:”

Come live with me, and be my love,

And we will all the pleasures prove

That valleys, groves, hills and fields,

Woods, or steepy mountain yields.

Or, like that of the poet and explorer, Sir Walter Raleigh (1552? – 1618) in “The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd” – “To live with thee and be thy love.”

Marlowe’s and Raleigh’s love is engrossing and was foremost on their minds. They would do anything for love, for it was authentic. Jesus Christ’s example was amazing when he died for us on the Cross. His love was more than that between couples or friends. It was a superior, ultra special, boundless, and distinctive in its saving grace.