MARQUETTE – In a world that seems increasingly obsessed with data, technical minutiae, sales, profits, individual attainment and winning, I often feel left behind.

I suspect there’s some kind of structural or chemical difference in my brain, because it’s involuntary and, at times, pretty unsettling. But the more I read and witness, the more rooted in my values I become.

I’m obsessed with ideas and stories, learning everything I can and creating things whenever the inspiration strikes. I want to understand better, give and receive love better, work hard, have adventures, make genuine connections, give generously, do no harm, live with greater peace and appreciate this giant mystery for the limited time I’m in it.

Now, I’m not saying I achieve those things, or that’s all everyone should care about – that’s why we’re all different – but those are my priorities. That’s how I grew up, how I stay sane and what I strive for.

I understand I’m privileged, living in the wealthiest nation in the history of the world. For the first time ever, there are plenty of resources to go around. Indeed, we waste 40 percent of our food, while millions of children go hungry, which is just one of our quiet modern tragedies.

But the idea of winning – being deemed in some way superior – is an unwelcome and embarrassing prospect for me. That’s just not what motivates me or gets me up in the morning, and it’s perplexing to see so much emphasis put on rankings, earnings and measurable outcomes.

I feel instead a giant sense of inter-connectedness and inter-dependence. I’m motivated by something that is hard to pin down, call it happiness or love. I believe we are all relying on each other and should work toward the common goal of easing suffering and awakening the joy that is our natural birthright. You see that joy in children and animals who are well-loved and cared for, and a few lucky adults. But I don’t believe it needs to be so rare or random. As communities and as a society, I believe we can cultivate well-being and reduce harm through intentional effort over time.

But I can’t help but look around and see a world with very different priorities. A world that makes me feel alienated, foolish and often preyed upon.

I’m not going to say the world and its current value system is bad, but it is much more complex and multi-faceted than I know.

Competition can be exhilarating, empowering and cathartic, but at it’s best, it’s never really about beating other people and taking all the spoils. We teach children how to be good sports, because being an arrogant winner or a resentful loser isn’t fun or productive for anyone.

But strange how we seem to have a double standard. Our political and economic systems propagate very different values than the ones we teach our children. Our system runs on profit. It rewards callous greed, cheating, deception, exploiting – outsourcing costs onto the laborer, another country, the consumer or the environment. Whatever will make money. Deregulation equals more freedom. Do and say whatever sells.

That’s why scantily clad women permeate all media forms, why heavily-advertised sugar and fat have created an explosion of completely preventable diseases and why we can’t trust the network news anymore. These highly-processed products are slowly killing us, physically, emotionally and spiritually. We fear for the well-being of our children in this strange, new world marked with mass shootings, environmental decline and routine malice.

But that’s what freedom is all about, we’re told. It’s not about the freedom to learn or afford health care when we’re sick, or make a living wage, or the freedom to drink water from the tap or, in many cities, the freedom to breathe the air.

No, it’s a different kind of freedom – freedom for corporations to act without oversight, to cut corners and save dollars, freedom to take more profit and reduce labor costs, to buy elections and legislation, freedom for banks to gamble with families’ savings, freedom to own, to buy, to take, to conquer.

It’s an outdated mode of thought, in my opinion. It won’t survive, if humans are to survive.

We have made a mistake in our obsession about individual liberties. We need liberty and freedom to operate unhampered and unmolested – yes, certainly – and that freedom was hard-won. But the truth rarely lies in extremes.

We are more than just individuals. We are also one larger organism. As Jesus Christ said (and was echoed in the words of countless liberators and truth-seekers throughout history), “Whatever you do for the least of these brothers of mine, you do for me.”

That simple thing – the “do unto others” we so often dismiss as a platitude – is the biggest, most important truth we must work on absorbing into our consciousness and integrating into our society.

The truth is for every child that gets neglected or abused, there is a wake of human suffering that can span generations. For every health issue that goes unprevented and unchecked, for every small act of kindness or cruelty, there is an infinite ripple effect. We need to have each other’s backs.

I don’t want to live in a society where I have to drive past homeless vets on the highway, or sit beside a friend whose life has been destroyed by medical bills, or know that private industries profit off the unfair incarceration of people struggling with drug addiction.

We have so much work to do to live up to our beautiful potential – or even just to survive. A lot of people give me hope, so here’s to them. Let’s keep it up.

Editor’s note: Mary Wardell can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 248.