The irony of our times.

What creates character? What motivates people? What brings people together? What defines us? Did you know that 3 billion Whats App messages are sent each day but 48% of people report being lonelier. People want to be useful. Is it better to make a big difference to a small group or a small difference to a big group?

These are some of the questions that I ask myself everyday, trying to make sense of situations - especially where I see people not being kind. These questions became more pertinent when I stumbled across a beautiful, insightful and eye-opening poem written by the Dalai Lama, called the Paradox of our Age. An accurate portrait of modern life and our struggles as humans.

"We have bigger houses but smaller families; more convenience but less time. We have more degrees but less sense: more knowledge but less judgement; more experts but more problems; more medicines but less healthiness. We have been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet our new neighbour. We built more computers to hold more copies than ever, ​but have less real communication; We have become long on quantity, but short on quality. These are times of fast foods but slow digestion; Tall men, but short characters; Steep profits but shallow relationships. It's a time when there is much in the window but nothing in the room."

To me, all 13 statements can be solved with one, simple tool. Kindness. A simple concept: taking care of each other.

Tyler Durden had it right when he pointed out:

"We work jobs we hate to buy shit we don't need to impress people we don't like".

So many lives revolve around debt, stress, ruined relationships, fake friends, big house, latest car. What good is this if you live a life alone and don't have anywhere to go?

It's time to stop forcing our opinions on others. Support instead of criticise. If someone wants to do something you don't agree with (and it will not affect you), why do you have the right to tell them they can't?

Being kind and taking care of each other may be naive and quite often, the response I get is "it's not that simple".

Guess what? It really is and it starts with each one of us, every single day.