Charter for Compassion is promoting a new day of action called International Golden Rule Day, which occurs this year on April 5. Golden Rule Day asks that participants “treat others and the planet as you would like to be treated.” Their view is that following the Golden Rule is not “an option” but “the key to our common survival.”
International Golden Rule Day was invented in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in 2007 by URI-Africa and the Interfaith Peace-building Initiative, and has since been joined by over 700 primarily religious organizations in 165 nations around the world. They assert that the Golden Rule as a concept is shared by most major religions, and is common to people everywhere. As such, it’s a simple idea that people across cultures can understand and act on.
Participation is easy — just follow the Golden Rule. Will it change your interactions with others? Will our world — as we experience it — be a smidge more peaceful that day? There’s only one way to find out! But for those who feel that the way to create a better and more peaceful world is to model that change themselves, this seems like a great opportunity to practice that commitment.
For more on Golden Rule Day, visit their web site. And if you happen to give this a try come Thursday, drop in here and tell us how it went.
it's natural
I find the Golden Rule to be quite natural. I sort of stumbled upon it myself despite parents rebelling and not taking me to to church.
Treating others as one wants to be treated is a really simple way to have an okay day. It feels good to be nice and helpful, it doesn’t cost anything, and you might make a friend.
What about those who don’t want to be treated well? Of course, if someone wants to be treated badly, that injects a desire that others treat that person badly into the equation… but overlooking that loophole, the basic gist of “being nice to others” still seems like a good way to operate.
As a dorm mother (RA), I used to tell freshpeople they could do anything they wanted, as long as they didn’t annoy other people, or hurt anyone or themselves. A golden rule, of sorts.
It’s also pretty much how we like iBrattleboro to run.
Very handy rule of thumb. No wonder they call it “golden.”