Welcome to the "Profiles in Caring" page, a syndicated column by Val J. Halamandaris. On this page you will find links to a selection of columns profiling some people throughout history who, through their caring, have made a significant contribution to the lives of others. These profiles are a celebration of the human spirit. Human beings alone have the ability to transfer learning from one generation to another. We now have the benefit of thousands of years of recorded history, while every other creature must start over again at birth.

Throughout the centuries, human beings have studied the past in order to understand the future. Ever since Plato and Aristotle, we have known that life is not governed by blind chance or magic, but by certain general operating principles. These principles, which unite the universe, are there to be discovered. They are consistent, predictable, and quantifiable; they can be learned, recorded, and taught.

It is a main premise of these profiles that such principles are not limited to science but are equally applicable in the conduct of human affairs. Life is therefore like a big jigsaw puzzle with tremendous gains available to humanity as the pieces are assembled.

Throughout history, there have been many attempts made to chronicle these basic truths by religious and spiritual leaders. Some of the most famous have come from Moses, Zoroaster, Lao Tzu, Aesop, Buddha, Confucius, Aristotle, Hillel, Jesus, Marcus Aurelius, and Mohammed.

The central premise of these profiles is that these great leaders, some religious and some secular, widely separated by both time and geography, reached strikingly similar conclusions. This coincidence and the repetition of identical conclusions lends great weight in support of the presumption that these are the central truths and bedrock values which govern the affairs of humankind.

These profiles tap into the rivers of thought that unite many of the greatest people who ever walked on the earth, exploring their life stories and highlighting their defining moments. As will become apparent, these great people have many things in common, including a vision that was somehow just a little clearer than that of the rest of the world.

Caring is the common theme that unites the greatest people throughout history. From Mother Teresa to Moses, from Gandhi to Buddha, they all say the same thing: Love one another, do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Albert Einstein, perhaps the brightest man of the modern era, advises, "Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile." Aristotle, the brightest man in antiquity, expresses identical sentiments, saying, "It is the characteristic of the magnanimous man to ask no favor but to be ready to do kindness to others." Viktor Frankl underscores this sentiment, saying, "The salvation of mankind lies in and through love."

If caring, the one-word distillation of the Golden Rule, is the highest value, it stands to reason that selfishness or apathy would be set forth as the greatest evil. Plato and Franklin D. Roosevelt both said as much. "The first and the best victory is to conquer self," said Plato. "To be conquered by self is, of all things, the most shameful and vile." FDR's diagnosis of the root cause of the economic ills which became known as the Great Depression was selfishness and greed. "We have always known that heedless self-interest was bad morals," he said. "Now we also know that it is bad economics."

The lives of these great men and women serve to remind us how much can be accomplished by individual human beings. They all have left a legacy in the form of a better world, leaving what Henry Wadsworth Longfellow called "footsteps in the sands of time." They also remind us that we are interdependent, that we both influence and are influenced by others.

They remind us that we do not live for ourselves alone, that we are only temporary guardians of the earth, keeping it in trust for future generations. This requires all of us to move toward the perfection of our natures, to be all that we can be and to reach our highest potential.