I was just trying to enjoy my ice cream on a warm spring afternoon—it wasn’t my intention to unravel any big truths, but these things come without warning…

I was sitting in the kitchen of my grandparents’ house next to my dear grandpa, chatting with him and laughing.

Suddenly, he noticed it was time to watch the news on the television. He had never missed the news in his life. Every afternoon, at the exact same time, he would switch on the television to watch the news. And every afternoon, he would end up unhappy because the vast majority of the news was not pleasant at all. What’s more, he followed a specific ritual: switching between channels on the TV and cross-checking the news that every channel was broadcasting. It seemed to me like he was searching for some good news, which he rarely managed to find.

That same ritual was followed as I sat next to him and ate my ice cream. He swapped between channels, watching the news, nodding and mumbling with disappointment. Although I knew of his process—because he’s been my grandpa for many years—an honest question came to me, and I couldn’t hold myself back from asking:

“Hey Grandpa, why do you seem so unhappy with the news?” I asked him.

“Because politics are corrupted and cause so much trouble and suffering to the world!” he answered.

That brief dialogue with him had an enlightening effect on me.

This opinion about politics is common among people, and has been for many years. But for much of that time, in many countries around the world, governors and governments are elected by the people. So why are we discontent with the politicians we, ourselves, elect?

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I think the answer lies within us.

Politics are just a projection of our society, our social maturity, and our level of personal awareness. If we have politicians who don’t really care about our well-being, it’s like because we don’t take really good care of our well-being. If the government doesn’t care for a healthy social structure, it’s because we don’t realize that we form the society, all of us, all together.

The more aware we become of ourselves, the more we will develop our consciousness. The more we develop our consciousness, the healthier and more prosperous our society will become. And the healthier our society, the more humanist our politicians will be—because we will change our way of thinking and therefore our voting criteria.

So it’s maybe worth it to turn within and to watch ourselves honestly. Without criticism, without denial, who am I? Who do I want to be toward myself, toward other people? Introspection is the first step to self-awareness and evolution for all of us. When we change ourselves, everything we create will change, too.

From that day on, although I’d like to avoid politics until they’re more representative of my views (and in service to all of us humans), I would only manage to avoid eating ice cream—which was the starting point of my revelation that day. I now use it exclusively when I want to go deeper in realization.