What if we replace competition with cooperation?

Fishermen say you never need a top for a crab basket. If one crab starts to climb up the sides of the basket, the other crabs will reach up and pull it back down. There are people who act a lot like crabs.

In a competitive world it is easier to weep with those who weep than it is to rejoice with those who rejoice. We can sympathize with failure better than we can congratulate success. We are jealous of those who rise too high and succeed too quickly. We want to pull them back in the bucket where they belong.

What if we replaced the spirit of competition with the spirit of cooperation? What if people helped each other climb as high as they can without yielding to the temptation to cut them down? What if service became our motto instead of selfishness? What kind of world would we have? So the next time you see someone doing well, cheer them on instead of holding them back. After all, people were not made to live like crabs.

By Howard Olds, Brentwood United Methodist Church