As everyone who has been following Sahar’s Blog closely knows, one of the most important topics covered here is that of creating a peaceful and just world.

I was talking about this with a dear friend of mine, and we came up with an analogy I’d like to share with you.

If life is a highway and we are driving it throughout our lives to get to the ‘other side’ (heaven or hell, according to her; the next world, according to me), we have to learn to stay focused on the road while keeping sight of everything around us. It means that while we do need to take care of ourselves – we need to eat, sleep, educate ourselves etc – we also can’t forget about what is going on around us – the state of the world and of our fellow man.

Which led us to a rather amazing discussion on the dual development that needs to go on if we are to create a peaceful and just new world. On the one hand, if the individuals in the world don’t know how to drive – or, in other words, if they lack spiritual qualities such as courage, honesty, compassion etc – then we can’t have safe roads. On the other hands, if the roads are pothole riden – or, in other words, if the institutions that govern our world do not reflect the same spiritual qualities that must needs defines the humans that inhabit it – then, again, we can’t have safe roads.

One can’t exist without the other; it’s not use teaching everyone how to drive safe if the roads are in such a state that even the best of drivers continuously get into accidents. By the same token, we can’t just focus on fixing up the roads, and there are more than enough bad drivers out there for this point to be made on its own.

So the question becomes: how do we develop ourselves and the community at the same time?

And, just because it seemed right, here is the clip to the Tom Cochrane song that inspired this conversation in the first place: