Selma
I wrote the following to a close group of friends a couple of nights ago, after watching “Selma” …
Selma
I wrote the following to a close group of friends a couple of nights ago, after watching “Selma” …
Dear friends,
I saw the movie Selma tonight. The movie itself was a 6.5/10, but the story is so powerful it didn’t matter. I teared up multiple times.
The world we live in was built on the blood and sweat of so many before us; each one who sacrificed for a better future for their children. For justice and for freedom. For what’s right.
We are the luckiest generation. We, as in you and me and people like us — young and talented inheritors of the forefront of technology and culture — are the luckiest of the luckiest generation. Every comfort we take for granted took centuries of effort to invent. Every right we are born with is the result of thousands of people who bled for it.
Excluding moments of inspiration, it’s difficult for us to remember all this. Oh the petty shit that takes up so much of my energy! The minor discomforts of an amazing life, the temporary loneliness of being by myself for one weekend, the meaningless gossip, the superficial material pursuits … what the fuck!?
The world is not rid of epic problems to solve. People waiting to be led. Organizations to be formed. Solutions to be found. From ISIS to Gaza, from global warming to Ebola, from same-sex marriage to equal pay for women, there are a million inspiring problems. A million problems that beg each one of us to play a role in solving them.
A prince born to royalty has an inherent responsibility to serve his countrymen. Each one of us today live with rights, comforts, and opportunities an Egyptian Pharaoh could only have dreamt of. Are we then not the royalty of not just our generation, but every generation that ever existed? How could any of us deny that responsibility to give back? To serve? Is it not our creed?
Even still, I am often distracted by petty shit that doesn’t matter to a soul in the world, and not even to me? Why do I spend many of my precious hours every day bothered by utter bullshit!?
Ego, my dear friends, must be crushed. Service must be upheld. It’s a decision. But making that decision is the easy, feel-good part. Anyone can feel anything with the right priming in an emotionally charged moment. But integrating this truth is harder. It is a practice. It is a lifestyle. It can only be realized through hard work, awareness, and trial and error.
I humbly hope that one day I will learn to live in the service of others. My wish for you is that you hope the same of yourselves. Because I need your help, and because together it’s always better.
Live an extraordinary life!
Love you guys,
Dil
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