If our minds were to concentrate on human similarities and not the differences, we would immediately cognize—and feel, hopefully—that all of we humans share at least one major similarity—we all are part of the human condition.

The ‘Human Condition,’ First, we all will die some day. Reborn? Let’s save that for another day. Second, there are bad hair days, very bad hair days and days we never, ever wish to again experience. Mixed in, of course, are the good hair days and the peak moments of life we would never wish to have missed.

So look at all the things we all have in common. Don’t have any hair? Then remember back to when you did. (Anyway, “bad hair day” is an expression — I wonder how it translates into German, Polish or Hindi?)

The point is we have the choice of whether to view glasses as half full or half empty, or to complain about having electricity only 6 hours a day or be grateful it’s not only two,. So each moment of our lives we can either thank God, ignore Him/Her, or curse Him/Her.

These choices are totally within our purview. That’s the really good news. Our attitudes are up to us. Now I would suggest this is not simply a matter of choice. I would suggest that doing our homework, greatly increases the odds of being more positive.

For example, it’s tough to be positive with a hangover. It’s also tough when troubled by the flu. So our homework might consist of not drinking to excess—dare I say, not at all—eating, sleeping, praying properly to lessen chances of becoming ill—Eat, Pray, Love, for those of you Elisabeth Gilbert fans and generally adding to our goal list, BEING POSITIVE.

Now somewhere I heard something about “train the mind to react with love all the time.” Well, if that’s not being positive, I don’t know what is.

With love, all is possible; without it, life is less than. We have choices, choices, choices—known otherwise as the Power of Discrimination (between right and wrong).

One difficulty with right and wrong is that those concepts are sometimes the extreme ends of the bell-shaped curve. There are so many choices, situations, nuances, etc. that fall somewhere near right or wrong, that it 1) makes life interesting, 2) makes things difficult sometimes and 3) can require us to really, really pay attention and be clear.

To attempt more clarity, one can put Jerry Springer (or worse, Maury Povich) on the TV anytime and view three-headed people from alcoholic families with eating disorders. Similarly, we can read about (or actually watch on TV nonstop in India) about saints and prophets and holy persons whose lives we would have much difficulty emulating. There we have the extreme ends of the bell-shaped curve.

Then there are the rest of us, having two or less heads, and less moments of high spirituality than some others.

This may be why we have been told that Swadhyaya (Self-Study) takes no vacation. Those shades of grey of life are often facing us. Vigilance is the key. Like the government’s anti-terrorists are fond of saying, “We have little or no room for error.”

Well, actually we have a lot of room for error, but as Law of Karma is inviolable, pay now or pay later, but pay we will for our indiscretions.

And so, the Human Condition…… We are all in the same boat, be it Noah’s or some other.