Good evening fellow humans!

It's late Wednesday evening in New York City, and on Friday morning we're leaving for the Blue Planet Run. I would like to take a moment to reflect on the mission, the higher purpose of what we're doing. I am talking about the big picture. Actually the biggest picture... the cause is higher than running, higher than traveling through 16 countries, and even higher than water. It is about humanity, about the very basic idea of what is good in us, about connecting to the very threads of humanity that runs though all of us, every single person of the human race. It is the thread of reaching out and offering one's self to another.

We all have it in us. The last time you saw a little child fall down, what was your immediate reaction? Most people would go and see if the child needs any help, if everything is okay. We all have the same tendency when we see others suffer. It is at the very core of being human. Virtues such as compassion, respect, and empathy are innate. They are in all of us. Yes, some of us progressively lose them. In our society, so focused on individualism and self-promotion, we are conditioned to replace these innate qualities with competitiveness and apathy. In doing so, however, we go against the very nature of being human.

I myself have been going against the very nature of being human - I've been privileged, and I've been ignorant.

I've been privileged by growing up in the Czech Republic, and then living in the United States. I always had safe water to drink, nourishing food to eat, honorable people to love, and noble dreams to dream. And, what have I done with all of this? I tried to get more water, more food, more love, and more dreams...FOR ME. I've been ignorant.

I've been ignorant because I denied my very nature; I neglected the virtues that have been passed on to me from our previous generations. What would be the human thing to do? I'm sure you know the answer. Often people state that they got where they are through hard work, and therefore they don't owe anyone anything. I would be the first one to admit that I used to engage in similar kind of thinking. Yet, when you really think about it, it really doesn't make any sense. The humankind has done so much work before I came along which pretty much makes any action of mine impossible without depending on the actions of my predecessors. We are all connected.

We are all connected through our humanity. What difference does it make where one was born? Nairobi, Prague, Bombay, Chicago, Rio... Just because I was born in Prague or Chicago, does it mean that my work should be rewarded ten times as much? Those working so hard in Nairobi, Bombay, or Rio--shouldn't they be rewarded equally? I would hope so. The reality of our world is not in line with these ethics. Yet. For now, however, maybe I can do whatever I can to be more human. I can be more compassionate, respectful, and empathic.

From now on I pledge that I will be more human. I will look at humanity
As a collective in which I am contributing to the well being of others. I am one with others.