Spread the Light!

Apply the Golden Rule to change the world inside out.

On April 11th, 2018 we celebrated the 50th anniversary of Fair Housing Act, a law that was enacted to protect the public from discrimination, a law that was yet another huge stride forward in US history. We as a nation have come such a long way from the days of The Civil War, dark periods of slavery and discrimination. Although far from being perfect, as an immigrant myself and having traveled to many countries, I can attest that our country, our democracy, our liberty, our free society is by far best that the civilization has yet produced. And we shouldn’t take it for granted. Our government has played an integral part in developing and protecting our freedoms. Of course that’s very important. But what can we do as citizens, as humans not only to abide by the protective laws, but to take our moral standards to another level that would well surpass the minimum standards set by those laws?

Raise your standards. Political climates change continuously and they create strains in our society. Unfortunately, the media is filled with suspense, horror stories and sensations. That’s how they make their money. Wouldn’t it be a grand world to live in if we turned on the TV and only saw heartwarming stories of love, kindness, tolerance and generosity? While they do exist in considerably higher amounts than the negative stories they don’t get the exposure. Can you change that? Probably not, at least not by yourself. But what you can do is to raise your own standards of human interaction.Napoleon Hill said “Set your own high standards and stand your ground. Come what may!” You can choose to spread kindness, care and love every day with every person you come in contact with. Treat everyone the same. Make it your goal to put a smile on every face you come in contact with daily. Master the art of genuine compliments. They can work miracles for people and they don’t cost you dime. On the contrary, they bring you the satisfaction of knowing you made someone’s day. A couple of weeks ago I was traveling and due to bad weather most of the flights got canceled in Dallas. There was a line several hundred people long to get to American Airlines customer service. It took us about 3.5 hours to get to the representative. Goes without saying that all the travelers were frustrated and they were taking it out on the poor customer service reps. Nobody seemed to notice that these folks had been on their feet for the same amount of time or longer, serving one angry passenger after another. When I got to the desk here is the first thing I said “Wow, I admire your patience and hard work. How do you manage to keep your beautiful smile alive under these stressful conditions?” It was almost like a cloud lifted from her head. I could tell that she got re-energized by those words and smiled even wider. Why wouldn’t you want to have a similar attitude towards everyone?

Allow for People’s Weaknesses. Are you perfect? Hopefully you didn’t answer YES to this question because that’s probably not true. I don’t believe people can be perfect and that’s OK. We are just humans. We make mistakes and we always will. The problem is we either don’t notice our mistakes or forgive them rather easily but we get furious when others make them. Why? What’s the difference? They are just as human as you are. Try to be more forgiving. You can’t stop people from making mistakes but you can adjust your reaction. In fact you can condition your mind to expect a human error so when it happens you’re not too surprised or too upset. Instead you concentrate on the solution of the problem because that’s the best thing you can do. Before getting into real estate I worked as a waiter. I will never forget the Valentine’s Day in 2005. The restaurant was fully booked. The kitchen was behind, the food was coming out cold, orders were getting mixed up... I had about 5 big tables at a time. I was trying really hard to keep the customers happy but they were frustrated, and rightfully so. All, except for this one table. Every time I would go back there to let them know the food will be out shortly they would tell me “No worries… we understand...it’s a busy night… don’t worry about our table, we are not in a big rush… you are doing a good job...thanks for checking on us” and things of that nature. In that hectic, unnerving environment going back to that kind, patient family was like going back to my “sanctuary.” I can never forget the feelings of relief and gratitude I felt each time I went back to them.

Practice the Golden Rule. You’ve probably heard of the Golden Rule. The Bible says "Do to others what you want them to do to you." Here are some other variations: “Whatever you do to or for another you do to or for yourself.” “You sow what you reap.” “You get out what you put in.” They all sounded like great philosophical phrases to me until I truly understood their real meaning and their incomprehensible significance in the daily life. I now know the Golden Rule is not a rule, it’s actually a law of the universe. What you put out in your daily life, whether positive or negative, good or bad, comes back to you multiplied in kind. Your current life is a reflection of your past actions. How amazing is the idea that you can change your future based on what you do today? Start intentionally applying the Golden Rule in a positive way and it won’t be very long before you start seeing the results. Help people, be kind to people, be grateful to people, appreciate what people do for you. Compliment good qualities in people but don’t scold them for their bad qualities. Instead of looking for shortcomings look for their virtues. If you turn this practice into a habit you can be sure that sooner or later you will see more and more blessings entering your life.

I think it’s appropriate to end my article for this Fair Housing issue with my favorite verse from autobiography of Mahatma Gandhi - one of the greatest human beings that has walked on this Earth. We could all look up to him and we should.

For a bowl of water give a goodly meal;

For a kindly greeting bow thou down with zeal;

For a single penny pay thou back with gold;

If the life be rescued, life do not withhold.

Thus the words and actions of the wise regard;

Every little service tenfold they reward.

But the truly noble know all men as one,

And return with gladness good for evil done.