Humans and Abandonment

Let’s take a little trip down memory lane. Think about those times that you were in elementary school, preschool, high school, and middle school. If I asked you what you remember most about your teachers, odds are that you’d talk about their personalities. But what about their teaching styles? Do you remember anything about them? Perhaps they were pretty harsh with their tests, or vice versa. Or maybe they liked the idea of thinking creatively. I don’t know; it was your school life. But what I do know is what my teachers were like academically. I remember very clearly how every single one of them stressed one major point about life: stick with it. In other words, they were saying that you should never give up with something; you should always keep trying. In other words still, the phrase also signifies that you should never abandon something. But you know what’s funny about that last interpretation? It doesn’t seem like it’s followed often. Do you know what I mean?

Maybe you don’t know what I mean by it, so I’ll go ahead and elaborate. You see, I am led to believe that we seem to not follow through with the idea of “sticking with something” because of all the things that I have seen around me. For one, I have noticed time and time again things like, say, cars left out for countless years in the harshness of nature. What happens to them? Well, they start deteriorating, that’s what. First the car get’s dirty from the outside, then its tires go, then it starts to rust… and rust… and rust… Doesn’t that seem like an incredible redundant thing to do to something, based on the fact that there is so much more that can be done to it that is more beneficial in some way? Couldn’t that car, if it really was damaged beyond repair, do something else rather than just sit there in its mechanical “afterlife”? Couldn’t it be salvaged for parts, and the rest recycled? Maybe even whole new cars could be made from a few of its parts… I don’t know. Anyways, I’ve actually seen the negative principle of abandonment not only associated with something that has broken down. I have also seen this neglect done on things for other reasons. For instance, I have heard on numerous counts of different building facilities being abandoned simply because the owner cannot afford to pay the mortgage for the establishment, let alone keep it running at the same time. So what happens? The building becomes dilapidated and virtually useless after only a few decades. But couldn’t that same facility become temporarily government-owned, then resold, then bought again? If that happened instead of abandonment, wouldn’t those buildings theoretically be in a flourishing existence for many decades on end, and because of so we wouldn’t have to build new buildings that take up even more space that can serve the same purpose as the “dead” foundations? Maybe yes, maybe no. But I’m not done ranting and raving about abandonment. Hear me out about our ways of abandonment beyond materialism.

Let’s look at humanity itself for a minute. What are we like? Do we constantly care about each other? Somewhat, but not all the way, it seems like. You see, we tend to our extended family, even more our immediate family, but we, on a relative basis, could care less about the people beyond that. For instance, do you know if anyone who goes out into the middle of, say, New York, and confesses their feelings to a random stranger, all the while crying up a storm? Odds are no. With that said, it is pretty sensible to assume that we tend to abandon people who are not dear by ourselves, right? Yes and no. You see, many find it easy to simply overlook a beggar on the street, but at the same time others can also find it pretty easy to put their own young into a dump. In my opinion, those kinds of things are ethically wrong, as you’d be treating a human pretty much no different than a toaster that decided to stop working for you. So many other things could go wrong with that person later, too. It would just be like the scenario with the building if you think about it. You see, let’s say that that individual could’ve grown up to be a doctor, had he the parental stimulation. But instead, say he took up a life of crime. So, with that said, why do we continue to abandon not only our own works as well as our own kind? Perhaps it really is natural for us. But at the same time, we are a species intelligent enough to understand the negative impacts abandonment can have. Therefore, we should discipline ourselves against abandonment, and truly “stick to it”, as our teachers have so repeatedly asked of us.