Qualities I Admire Most In A Person: A Moment With Bill Reflection

Really? You are? Well then take your act down the road because I really don’t want to hang with you. Why you ask? Simply because perfection is unattainable in a human being, and if you think you have attained it then you are a bit, shall we say, OFF YOUR ROCKER!

The other problem I have with perfection is that I find it a bit dull. I love flaws in people. Flaws are interesting. Flaws add flair. Flaws add bling. Flaws are so very cool. Flaws are very human, and I have no desire to rub shoulders with “less than human.”

Seven point two billion human beings on this planet, a veritable sea of emotions; sometimes calm and peaceful; sometimes a raging cauldron of illogic, fear and self-centered egotism, but always interesting.

Let me state for the record that people fascinate me. I would love to say that I love everyone I meet but that simply would not be the truth. I love mankind, and I treat everyone I meet with respect, but it just is not within me to love every person I am in contact with. Some people just annoy the hell out of me, and I have no doubt that I annoy others as well. Oh well!

There are a great many, however, that I do admire and respect. They have exhibited certain qualities that make them honorary members of the Bill Holland Human Hall of Fame, and until the day comes when they forfeit their membership by acting inhuman, they can kick back in my clubhouse any old time they want.

What are those qualities you ask?

“Our task must be to free ourselves by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty.”

Albert Einstein

A feeling of distress for the suffering and misfortune of another; that, my friends, is compassion in a nutshell.

Do you have it?

Do you have it when you see the homeless in the world? Do you have it when you witness injustice? Do you have it when your next door neighbor loses his job, or when that mother of four down the street has a house fire and all possessions are lost?

I know for a fact that the polar opposite of compassion is apathy, and never during my lifetime have I seen more apathy than I witness in today’s society. One would have to be an ostrich not to notice the suffering happening in the world today and yet there are those who are seemingly unaffected by it. Those people need not apply for membership into my Hall of Fame.

“The struggle of my life created empathy - I could relate to pain, being abandoned, having people not love me.”

Oprah Winfrey

Yes indeed, the ability to relate to the pain of others…to have empathy for them.

How can I tell someone I know how they feel if I have never experienced what they are experiencing? How can anyone understand loss if they have never lost? How can they understand and relate to emotional pain so acute as to seem like a million knives rammed into your heart, if they have never lived it?

Life is about struggle, and life is about enduring and overcoming that struggle. The people I am closest to…the people who have had the most profound effect on my life…are people who have suffered and risen above it. They understand what it means to be overwhelmed by an emptiness of the soul. They understand the courage and determination it takes just to climb out of bed when your entire being is screaming to hide under the covers.

And because they understand it, they are able, in turn, to provide comfort to those who are in dire need of a sympathetic ear or an understanding hug. Those are the people I hang with and proudly call my brothers and sisters.

“I claim to be a simple individual liable to err like any other fellow mortal. I own, however, that I have humility enough to confess my errors and to retrace my steps.”

Mahatma Gandhi

Humility is freedom from excessive pride and arrogance. It is to have a realistic opinion of one’s worth in this world. It is the hero that battles the anti-hero, ego, for most of our lifetimes.

How many of you know a loudmouth who dominates every conversation? How many of you know a person who is blinded by the light of their imagined greatness?

St. Augustine once told us that in order to rise to the level of the angels we must first build a foundation of humility. St. Augustine can hang out in my clubhouse any old day. What would the world be like if there were less ego and more humility? Can you imagine?

“Love always creates, it never destroys. In this lie's man's only promise.”

Leo Buscaglia

I don’t know any other way to say this: without love we are doomed as a species. Do you live love?

I am an observer of life. I grab a comfortable chair and I sit back and take notes while watching humanity parade before me. Perhaps all writers are like that, observers of the life game. As an observer, I wonder how many on this planet profess to be Christians? I’m just curious. Wikipedia tells me that Christianity is the world’s largest religion with an estimated 2.2 billion Christians roaming this planet. Although I rarely use Wikipedia as the know-all source of knowledge, I suspect in this case that they are fairly accurate in their claim.

Now I am left with this question: I wonder how many Christians live their faith? I wonder that because Christianity is based on the principle of love, and if that is the case then how is it possible that there are so many acts of hate in this world? How can there be so much bigotry? How can there be so much intolerance? If 2.2 billion Christians lived the faith they profess, then this world would see much less turmoil, would it not? And yet daily we see hundreds of thousands of examples of un-Christian behavior. How is that possible?

Well the answer is obvious, isn’t it?

Imagine tomorrow if 2.2 billion people lived lives based on love. What would the world look like?

Love has no qualifications. It has no limits based on creed. It has no limits based on race. Love is all-encompassing and all-inclusive. We are all capable of it and we are all capable of rejecting it.

The choice is ours.

The people I hang with have made the choice of love.

Those are the qualifications that my Hall of Fame members all have in common. You know already if you are a member and to you I say welcome and I’m glad you are here. If, however, you are lacking in one or more of these qualifications, but you wish to become a member, then you have some work to do. It really isn’t hard. All you have to do is what comes natural and become a human being. All you have to do is embrace your finer qualities and reject those qualities that hinder you in your search for human greatness.

Once you become a member you will receive no secret decoder ring. You will receive no plaque or ribbons, and there will be no parades in your honor. All you will receive…all that you will receive….is the knowledge that you have lived your life as you were meant to live it from the moment you were born…soaring with the angels and exhibiting the finest qualities of humanity.

The choice is yours.

2013 William D. Holland (aka billybuc)

“Helping writers to spread their wings and fly.”