Let's pull together

The story goes like this... a tourist's car trapped into the mud near a village when he wandered around. He spent more than half an hour trying in vain to draw his Mercedes out striking back and forth, but all he has accomplished was a muddy car. A villager from a nearby house watched him for a while then decided to help. He approached the desperate man leading his old mare and offered to pull his vehicle. The tourist was delighted, but asked whether the mare is capable of such an effort. The peasant replied: "My Dawn has carried out much harder tasks, man just need to know the right approach to her." Then both dived their hands into the mud and fastened ropes best as they could.

Then farmer moved away and shouted: "Pull, Nellie, pull!" Dawn stood still. Then again, her owner shouted, "Go, Whitey, go!" Mare did not even try to take a step. The only change was her trembling muscles on the right shoulder. And then the shout is heard: "Pull, Dawn, pull!" The very moment mare stepped steadily and the car followed her slowly out of the mud. The tourist was impressed. He offered some money to the villager and then grasped the chance for his curiosity. He asked the owner why he is called misnomer animals first two times. The farmer replied: "Dawn is the blind mare and a very stubborn one. If she only guesses that she alone should pull the burden she wouldn't even budge! When I command to some other horses to pull, she think she isn't on her own and she always pulls."

I'm always mad at myself when I recall how many times I was as blind as the stubborn mare. I refused to be good because the others are bad too. Why should I go to my neighbor and help him to pump the water out of his flooded basement when he also has a neighbor on the other side and also one across the street? Why should I be a careful parent while everyone else punishes their disobedient brats as it is "quite normal" behavior? When everyone else is going to pull, then I will too.

I'm always mad at myself, but now I understand. It's not just stubbornness, nor is it just selfishness. It is the depression due to the desperation that is not worth to pull because I can't do it alone. But it is also the blindness. In those moments, I simply do not see the other people who pull the burden of humanity. The old biblical story of Elijah the prophet mentions his depression in the middle of all his fervor faith and spirituality, and speaks of him as he lays down in a cave in his desperation. Then he heard the voice of God where he said: "What are you doing here, Elijah?" You are my servant, and your job is out there to teach and fix the people. Elijah said he can not do that because he alone is left, they killed all the prophets and it is not worth trying with these ungodly people. With full authority the voice then said he is not the only one the pious, and that beside him there are still thousands of righteous that he did not know about. Elijah recovered and continued to do his best.

At this point I don't know what your problem is. I know most of my own and I'm trying to fix it. In the accordance to my mission, I will mention only one. For years I just wanted to stubbornly wait for us to kill each other. I did not give any more attention to be good, faithful and learned, I stopped to emphasize the harmful effects of religious hypocrites, religious fanatics, ignorant, and politicians, and it wasn't any more acceptable to me to be accompanied with stubborn materialist and atheist, and once again, politicians (in religion or secular sphere, politicians are the worst). And then I looked around a bit more honest. There are, outside my small circles, in the very field of nature, thousands seemingly atheist hardworking people who spend their days and nights without sleep analyzing data, testing, cleaning pieces of fossils, observe the celestial movements, record their results, finding new drugs for our health, looking for solutions of various problems, the solutions which many of us consume daily. At the same time I see many people that, for the sake of truth, ignore the knowledge, but pray to their god for our own good, speak words of encouragement, feed the hungry, teach about good education, visiting the sick, shows us by example what it means to forgive and advocate peaceful solutions. Then I said "let me pull".

At this point I really don't know what your problem is, but the problem is even greater if you feel like Dawn, the blind and a stubborn mare. You will not make any move while others do not pull. That means that the values around you are going to continue to sink into the mud. Stand up and see, there are even thousands of them who you do not know, but they do their best for sure. When I ask you to pull, I am not shouting fake names to deceive you. When I ask you to pull, I beg you to join.