What we value in people

Looking at what is in the news makes me think about what kind of world we live in. We seem to live in a world that values youth, looks and overt sexuality. We are exposed to these messages every second it seems. We need to color our hair, grow or  have the right pout, and wear and drive the latest model car and the best designer clothes. Professionals are even judged but how much money they make. Which asks the question? Who is more successful, Mother Theresa or Donald Trump. Food for thought there!
Seems like it is very easy to get stuck in a superficial, never ending quest for more. Yes, never ending. We can end up caged in our thoughts while on a wheel thinking we are moving forward but infact wasting a lot of energy.
Then we hear about people affected by various medical problems including being stricken by flesh eating bacteria and losing their limbs, all their limbs. What may that person think as the shock wears off and they have to live in the world? Realistically, they most problaby will need a lot a therapy both physical and emotional to return to functioning that will be not be the same. It will be a new life and yes, there is life.
But what can we learn from these situations? A lot!  We need to return to a time when people were valued not by perceived wealth or physical attributes which now most likely are surgically enhanced but by their souls. Their ability to love, have emphathy and be giving to their community. We can not take the wealth with us. At birth and death we are all the same. I feel that we need to redirect our focus from weatlth and phyical features. If we give, we recieve. Perhaps focusing on loving and caring for ourselves and others. I heard someone say once " God doesn't make junk. " We all have strengths and weaknesses that makes us who we are. We are like Yin Yang. We need to begin loving our strenghths and our weaknesses as well as others'. It would be such a neat world if it did not matter what we looked like, what we drove, or what our financial assets were and we can love one another. A world like that would embrace a person who's life has been healvily altered by disease. A person "disfigured " by accident or disease. I guess I can dream and try to be an example.