Be Good For Your Health
Dear Institute Friends:Stephen G. Post
This month we are forwarding two brief articles, one from the influential on-line magazine slate.com, which continues our scientific approach to the ways in which the love of neighbor, or “doing unto others” (the positive version of the Golden Rule), creates flourishing for the giver. The title, “Do Good for Your Health,” is only intended to capture a by-product of a genuine active concern for the well-being of others. It focuses on how small intentional actions of helping others create an emotional shift away from destructive emotions, and are health-enhancing in adolescents.
A second article takes up the human need for meaning, and its inevitable links to love. Yet one of the most dangerous forces in the universe is the arrogant love for only some small fragment of humanity that excludes all the rest and does harm to them. As my friend Jean Vanier, founder of L’Arche and recent winner of the Templeton Prize points out, we live in a time when our species will either evolve spiritually to Unlimited Love or devolve into the chaos of Unlimited Hate.