David Keo

How one emoji humbled me back into remembering who I am The past days have been great. I was very loving with my parents that I visited over the holidays, the conversations I was having, not just with them but with all people, were amazing. Life was good. And in my calls with Thomas, I learned a bunch of new stuff, things that I have struggled with for years (one of those being the concept of authority, which Vedendra made a beautiful post about). Now I’m sure you heard about pendulum swings. If you’ve been on one side of the pendulum your whole life (let’s say you’ve lived by certain rules that don’t allow you to do certain things), and you just discovered that there is another way of life (living without those rules), you might very likely swing to the opposite extreme of that specific thing first before finding a healthy balance. In this example, if the rules held you back from doing certain things in your life, you might initially overdo the things you held yourself back from. Our ego loves these realizations, because it makes us believe that we are more now, and with that also better than others. In my own case, this whole idea of authority and that it doesn’t really exist, got a little too much into my head, and my ego got a little inflated with this whole idea. This pendulum swing isn’t bad in and of itself, but when this happens unconsciously and we forget to be love in the process, things can get ugly. So here’s the uncomfortable truth of how this played out for me today. I was commenting on a bunch of personal and group posts on Facebook, all from this energy of this newfound understanding of the concept of authority. On one specific comment, I left a laugh emoji which was reflecting my own feelings on the topic. I didn’t think too much about it, but interestingly, it felt a little off when I left it there. I decided to ignore it and continue with my activities, feeling great about myself. Until today, when I got a message from Thomas in which he called me out on this one emoji that he felt was completely off from what he was used to from me. It was very uncomfortable to read. First I didn’t get why he was so intense about it, it was „just an emoji“ after all. And I didn’t get how he knew something was off from just this one emoji. He even asked me how I thought he could possibly know, but I couldn’t tell, so I let the pain of the interaction just be there (spoiler: the ego hates being called out, and it will hurt like hell, but if you let it, you can learn a lot in the process). And then I realised what he wanted me to see. When we get too focused on ourselves, we forget how our actions can affect others. That is a huge responsibility. So when we forget to take care of others, we also forget this responsibility. When I only thought about myself in that moment when leaving the emoji, I didn’t see how this might affect another person. And with that, I also forgot my responsibility. Loving others and taking care of them is a responsibility. From this place, something as small as a comment can have a huge impact on someone else (the same way a smile towards a total stranger can keep that person from jumping off a bridge). When we come from love, it’s no longer just about us anymore. We touch people’s lives in very profound ways. Ways we aren’t aware of sometimes, especially when the ego gets the better of us, aka when we forget to be love. I wasn’t really aware of this before today. But it sure was humbling to be reminded. Will I never forget to be love again? Unlikely. Will I fuck up every now and then? Probably. But the importance is to remember love, remember the responsibility we have towards our fellow humans. Thank you for reading. Stay humble, stay loving