- Love, Justice, & Generosity
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- Love, Justice, & Generosity
Love, Justice, & Generosity
This will make you happy, why do some lives matter more than others, and being kind to ourselves.
Michael Larson
June 29, 2023
On Love:
“But one thing continuously demonstrates its broad and enduring importance: good relationships. In fact, good relationships are significant enough that if we had to take all eighty-four years of the Harvard study and boil it down to a single principle for living, one life investment that is supported by similar findings across a wide variety of other studies, it would be this: Good relationships keep us healthier and happier. Period.”
If you take nothing else from the newsletter this week, let it be this: investing in relationships (family, friends, intimate, work, etc.) is the greatest investment you can make in this life. It will bring happiness and joy that cannot be compared. Life is all about relationships.
On Justice:
About 10 or so days ago five people embarked on the experience of a lifetime. Their goal: to see the ruins of the Titanic at the bottom of the ocean. After descending into the depths of the Atlantic in search of the historical ruins, the submersible failed to resurface. The US and Canadian coast guard both got involved searching for the missing vessel. Commercial ships in the area also took part. The area of the ocean’s surface searched was reported to be the size of Connecticut. Millions of dollars were spent on the rescue mission. After days of the search, major debris was found at the bottom of the ocean. The conclusion: the submersible had imploded and all five passengers had died. The passengers included a Pakistani billionaire and his son, a French titanic expert, a British businessman and explorer, and the vessel’s pilot who lived in Seattle.
The week before this happened there was a group of people on a very different type of journey - a journey from persecution, from violence, and war. Their ship was one traveling across the Mediterranean Sea, aboard were families from Syria, Egypt, and Palestine. There were an estimated 750 people on the ship. One night during the trip, the ship sank, taking hundreds of people’s lives with it. Only 104 people have been found alive. It is one of the most devastating shipwrecks to have ever happened in the Mediterranean Sea. This story hasn’t garnered anywhere close to the same amount of media attention though its toll on human life has been over 100x greater than the toll from the submersible. Mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, all hoping for a better life.
This brings up a question of whose lives do we value over others? And why? What does this say about us and who we are as a people?
On Generosity:
“To make kindness normal in the world, it first requires people to make kindness normal for themselves.”
By being generous with the kindness we give ourselves this week, we may just make the world a better place.
A question for the day:
What is one way you can invest in relationships today?
Resource of the Week:
Book: The Good Life - Lessons from the longest scientific study of happiness by Robert Waldinger, MD and Marc Schulz, PhD
If you know of anyone who might be interested in taking this journey towards more Love, more Justice, and more Generosity in their own life and in the world, please send them this link which will allow them to sign up (or copy and send: https://ljg.beehiiv.com/subscribe).
Thank you for being here.
With Love, Justice, and Generosity,
Michael Larson