The Long Con

July 6 is the birthday of Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dala Lama. He once wrote,

We humans have existed in our present form for about a hundred thousand years. I believe that if during this time the human mind had been primarily controlled by anger and hatred, our overall population would have decreased. But today, despite all our wars, we find that the human population is greater than ever. This clearly indicates to me that love and compassion predominate in the world. And this is why unpleasant events are ‘news’; compassionate activities are so much a part of daily life that they are taken for granted and , therefore, largely ignored.

On the final episode of Renee Colvert’s My Pandemic Makeover Spectacular! podcast, she discusses kindness with Cait Moldenhauer. Throughout her life, Colvert says she was a “cheerleader,” effusive and helpful. Because of that, she’s felt belittled, that she wasn’t taken seriously. Moldenhauer agrees that being kindcan make one feel like a pushover, but kindness wins.

Being mean and cutthroat, Moldenhauer explains, gets back to you. But it’s a pleasure to work with kind people. Kindness may not always pay off in the short term; mean people might get their way. But “in the long game, the long con, you’re conning people to be nice to you for the rest of your life.”

What the Dalai Lama says about the overall historical trend, and what Cait Moldenhauer says about interpersonal relationships, reflects what I believe is an inner knowing.