Social Responsibility Is Trendy

Hallo... do you ever wonder why the sense of social responsibility is not emphasized more often? Here we are, one human race, one planet, shared resources, and it costs so little to act socially responsible, yet many of us just don't.

The sign in the gym locker room states, "Please limit your towel usage to 2 towels per visit" and yet people take 4, 5, 6 towels off the rack. More towels means, more laundry, means more water usage, means an environmentally un-friendly act. To add to it, people leave their used towels, empty shampoo bottles, dirty cotton buds, and more in the shower and locker room area. There are plenty of 'used towel bins' and 'garbage bins' provided so, people who disrespect public property shall be labeled as those who lack social responsibility. Right?

Take another scenario... you see a person get up from their chair and start to leave a cafe. You notice, they forget their shopping bag. Do you pick up the bag and go after them and say 'Excuse me, you forgot this' or do you just sit there thinking, 'It is not my responsibility to say something' ? Aah, not true, because it is your responsibility as a fellow human being to be socially aware and responsible.

Take also... giving up a seat on the bus to an elderly person, not throwing your garbage out the car window, helping a person in need, caring for the environment, recycling, volunteering to support foster children, and the list goes on. All minimum effort work.

One of the best lessons an x-boss taught me, and I sometimes have to remind myself, is to always question - 'What do I lose? What do I gain?' before taking any action. In that light, if we don't take plenty of towels at the gym... we are saving the environment (gain), if we use the garbage bins... we make the place cleaner for our fellow humans (gain), if we inform the cafe person about their bag... we get a smile and save them a lot of trouble (gain), if we volunteer to help foster children... we change a life or two (super gain).

Any which way you question it, socially responsible actions are not losses, but gains. Perhaps, we can make being socially responsible a trendy catchy so-today in-thing, yah?

-zensufi-