I PURPOSEFULLY left this little word stand alone in its own right without adding or subtracting  to the title.

I suppose the underlying reason for this is to show how three simple letters can describe something (is it even a thing?) that can play such a powerful part in our lives.

A very important observation to make here is that I didn’t state if this power was constructive or destructive – in fact it can be both, but because our Ego is directly connected with our thinking mind, I would suggest that it should be used with great awareness and caution as our thoughts on any given matter can very often lead us on a path to destruction.

The main driving force of Ego is thought. Thoughts can be dangerous and they are subject to change. Please keep that in mind.

1      Mankind (The Catholic Church in particular) once thought that the world was flat – it isn’t, it is round. Anyone who disagreed with those thoughts initially faced serious consequences at the time – Ask Galileo!

2      Man  once believed that ships could only be made out of wood (wood floats) but it was later discovered that ships sail based on the laws of displacement not on flotation and as a result many of our best modern ships are constructed from steel.

3      There are people and countries in our world right now who believe that other human beings, be they of a different nationality, colour or religion are somehow inferior and deserve unjust treatment.

All I am saying is that the above three examples are ones of the collective ego of mankind (Be it groups or countries). They are all based on human thoughts which in turn form beliefs, then opinions and have the potential to be at their most destructive when they get passed into law. As they are beliefs they are subject to possible change of belief – look at example 1 and 2.

Example 3 is a very dangerous road to go down – very dangerous indeed.

We have seen these type of Nationalistic beliefs raise their ugly heads again in recent times with Brexit, the American elections especially with the Trump professions (Mexican walls etc) and furthermore with the upcoming French and Austrian and Italian elections.

Love for ourselves and for our fellow human beings that live on our planet is a far more powerful force than hatred and segregation. This love should be fostered and encouraged.

Yes, I will admit it is easy for this article to become controversial and foster argument of all types (how far down the rabbit hole do you want to go) but yet I feel it needs to be said.

The solution I believe is one where we live in a world where we are less opinionated (less judgemental) of each other and put our efforts into learning to live and work together in harmony.

This in turn will engender a world of ‘less Ego’ and that can only be a good thing.

The essence of this article is peace and goodwill. It is the season of goodwill, isn’t it? Peace and goodwill can only be achieved when we can all cohabitate and co-operate. Yes we can dream about such a world but it is also necessary to speak out when one sees the world being pulled in a different direction.

I’m going to leave you with a verse from the song ‘Imagine’ by John Lennon.

Imagine no possessions

I wonder if you can

No need for greed or hunger

A brotherhood of man

Imagine all the people

Sharing all the world…

Next week I am going to write about -EGO (Part 2)

• Roger Harty is a life coach and can be contacted on 087-6128336, on twitter at @Innerjoyz1 or by email rogharty@gmail.com