Before It’s Too Late: Cultivate!

Seneca, a Stoic philosopher, wrote many years ago: “Let us cultivate our humanity.”

I love that idea and have found that it encourages a rewarding depth in relationships.

As a boy on a farm in West Virginia, we cultivated fields that before plowing were often covered with weeds and brambles. We didn’t let the weeds discourage us from producing a crop.

In our relationships the “fields” often have a lot of weeds—behaviors that can be difficult, even odorous and noxious, but beneath all of that is the rich soil of humanity which, if cultivated, yields benefits that are rewarding.

Focusing simply on the behaviors often triggers impulsive words and actions that create more “weeds and brambles.” Little or nothing grows there.

Focusing beyond those behaviors on the soil of our common humanity engenders the surprising promise of new growth and possibilities. And that is what it means to “cultivate our humanity”.

Giving up old ways and habits is always hard, but sometimes a future worth living in is at stake.

All of us would be wise to be more attentive to the cultivation of our common humanity—in our homes, our communities, our nation—and less “put off” by the “weeds and brambles.” Let’s cultivate and celebrate…the humanity common to us all.

 -Landon Saunders