A quick test

It will take just a minute as it actually consists of one question only:

In your opinion, is the universe we live in friendly or hostile?

If by any chance Einstein, who supposedly believed this to be one of the most fundamental questions we can ever ask ourselves, lived today he would have given you the following test key:

If you believe that the universe is a hostile place, you will work hard all your life on building walls around  you in order to protect yourself from it.

On the other hand, if you see the world as basically friendly, you will spend your lifetime on building    bridges around you.

Well, it’s not that hard to guess what would anyone who has been anywhere near the war choose as an option. Does it mean that these people, even if they escape the war and outlive its terror, are in a way crippled for life? Are the tins of canned beef and beans, powdered milk, bags of flour and containers of oil nearly enough to make up for all the damage that has been done? Ok, the patient survived but what about their quality of life afterwards and how long it will last?

I can tell you that the situation is not hopeless. Everything is reversible, even the hostile image of the world. You just have to give it another chance, no matter how hard it might seem. I think that as soon as one shows some determination and willingness to try, an opportunity will show up.

In my case, I think it all began from looking at the world through the eyes of a person who is more confident about the goodness of other people than anyone else I have ever met. This friend of mine loves taking photos, especially of people he, by the way, so easily makes contact with. So I had the privilege to wander around the world seeing it the way he does. This easygoing, unrestrained approach to people seemed to me as amazing as their smiling eyes that would in return shine back from his photos. A little later, when I discovered Couchsurfing, I’ve come to feel some of this shiny warmth even more intensely by meeting people in person. From then on, everything has been a lot easier.

Julian Barnes, one of the best contemporary English writers and a very smart guy by the way, would probably drop in here to say that you have to believe in the world just as you have to believe in love. And even if it lets you down again, which is very likely, if not inevitable, you still must go on believing in it as otherwise the world will come down on you with all its heaviness. Eventually it all comes down to building bridges or walls in life and I’m sure everyone will agree that building bridges is much more fun.  

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