The good life is built with good relationships.
Interpretation
A fulfilling life is largely dependent on the quality of our relationships with others.
This quote by Robert J. Waldinger emphasizes that the key to a satisfying and meaningful life lies in the strength and quality of our connections with other people. It suggests that nurturing these relationships can lead to greater happiness and fulfillment, highlighting the importance of community and love in personal development.
In practice
During a speech about community engagement, I shared Waldinger's quote to highlight the importance of building relationships.
Being human means there's a wall-builder in each of us. Our minds naturally divide the world into me and not-me, us and them. For thousands of years, our sages have taught that we're all one, yet we still divide wherever we look.
It's the quality of your relationships that matters.
It's not just the number of friends you have, and it's not whether or not you're in a committed relationship. It's the quality of your close relationships that matters.
It turns out that people who are more socially connected to family, to friends, to community, are happier, they're physically healthier, and they live longer than people who are less well connected.
People who are more isolated than they want to be from others find that they are less happy, their health declines earlier in midlife, their brain functioning declines sooner, and they live shorter lives than people who are not lonely.
Most of what we know about human life we know from asking people to remember the past, and as we know, hindsight is anything but 20/20. We forget vast amounts of what happens to us in life, and sometimes memory is downright creative.
And do as adversaries do in law, strive mightily, but eat and drink as friends.
Given the historical power differential between blacks and whites, blacks are required to be attentive to the way their white counterparts see themselves in relation to people of color if they want to survive and even thrive.
Like officer Dave.He's never said much about his life, but I can tell he's scarred. And he knows I'm scarred too. The wounded always recognize the wounded. We can smell each other.
This multicultural approach, saying that we simply live side by side and live happily with each other has failed. Utterly failed.
I have one great fear in my heart, that one day when they are turned to loving, they will find that we are turned to hating.
Harsh words live in the dungeon of the heart
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