The Art of Living, Collecting and Giving to the Global Community

Dr. Wayne Dyer once wrote a great sentence, "The measure of your life will not be in what you accumulate, but in what you give away." The measure of your life will not be in what you accumulate, but in what you give away, said the author of the book The Power of Intention.

Collecting is an ancient tradition in human life. History books call it: "gathering food". That was for ancient activities during the hunting era. In modern times, the activity of collecting food is still carried out by humans, in the form of power, influence, and in short: resources.

The problem is, sometimes people are too busy collecting but forget to give. In fact, the activity of getting needs to be accompanied by the activity of giving. The more we get, the more we should spend.

Great people in their lives give a lot. They collect resources - wealth, knowledge, experience - which they then share with others. They are not afraid of losing, because being stingy in giving is the real loss.

We all have varying abundances. There are those who are abundant in wealth, position, good name, and even skills. Abundance of skills is also part of the fortune that not everyone gets. When we get all of that, then we immediately take out "other people's rights" from it all.

If we reflect more deeply, what we get is also actually what people give out. We get from what people give out, what people leave behind, and what people ignore or don't get. The so-called opportunities do not come from ourselves but rather the "synergy" of the will or lack of will of others.

So, living life every day by collecting and giving is a wise activity. We collect something and don't forget to give it to others. We breathe oxygen to live. So don't forget to "bring to life" other people, our society and the international community through the resources we have.

YANUARDI SYUKUR is an Indonesian writer who is also a lecturer, editor, researcher and speaker at various conferences and expert resource person on several Indonesian television stations and ministries. He has participated in various international programs in Malaysia, Thailand, Australia, the United States, as well as Ukraine. He is an anthropologist at Khairun University who is interested in various global issues. He is currently also active as Vice Chairman of the Islamic and Middle East Research Center (IMERC) of the University of Indonesia and is active in the Commission on Foreign Relations and International Cooperation of the Indonesian Ulama Council. E-mail: yanuardisyukur@gmail.com.