Please bear with me, I need to address this. Here is the thing. I appreciate the sentiment of this graphic. I agree that we should do the best we can to take care of ourselves. Our life IS, without a doubt, 100% our own responsibility and we each should do our best to act accordingly. But somewhere in the back of my mind I keep hearing this echo that if I listen hard to, I can make out the words.; there but by the grace of.... As much as I want to walk past a panhandler or someone in need, smug in my judgment that they should have made better choices, that they should take responsibility for them selves. I hear that receding continuous phrase, over and over. there but by the grace of.... We each live in a world invented and created by others. We at this exact moment are the beneficiary of millions of peoples work and struggle and toil and heart break and loss and misery. Not one of us has done it completely on their own. Not one. Who among us has paved every single one of our own roads that we have traveled? Who of us has built every roof under which they have laid their head? Who of us has been 100% responsible for their own lives? I venture to say that those who most closely reflect that ideal are people who they themselves have or are struggling. We were all infants. We were all children. We all had teachers and guides. It is not possible to take 100% responsibility for your own life. Try going a week without water. Thank you plumbers. Thank you water utility people. Business people are dependent on their workers. Not always but often their riches are gained through exploitation, by being in the stream of the money so that they can control it in a way their workers can not. For example, fast food workers are responsible to the extent they can be and do their best to take care of them selves. However because of poor regulation and capitalistic systems that encourage and reward greed, these same fast food workers often lack the tools to protect them selves. This process is repeated throughout capitalism. Walmart. Need I say much more about that? Should we judge low paid workers who need help? Should we help them? Some people are born with sever disfigurements and medical needs that are crippling to families. How should we judge them? Should we help them? Can you here that faint echo? Some people are born seemingly normal (what ever that means) but over time develop mental illnesses. Illnesses that are often invisible and sometimes incomprehensible to those of us lucky enough to not ever have to deal with them. Depression and schizophrenia spring to mind but there are many many other maladies too. Are we to turn away and just say too bad for them because It would cost too much to help? Honestly, that is just more selfish crap. There are millions of people unemployed just waiting to do something. Wishing to be trained in some way to be of service to humanity. To help others with just these kinds of problems. People waiting and hoping to have meaning restored to their lives. On the other had there are trillions of dollars locked up in bank accounts because certain individuals with their own particular hording sickness refuse to release it into the hands of people who could do some good with it. We are responsible for our selves 100%. I agree completely. To the extent we can be. We absolutely should encourage that. But because of that echo I keep hearing I also believe we are 100% responsible for the world we live in and for each other as well. There is no shame in someone asking for help if they need it and it is OK to have the kind of heart that wants to help people. It is OK to not help too. But remember what that is. It is conveniently forgetting that whoever you are, you too have had to have help of some kind along the way. I may be making too much about this simple graphic but in my little perfect world we wouldnt post messages that point fingers like this. I would rather we just encourage one another to do our best and to remember that there are people out here who care about them. - Keep going, keep trying, you are important and we will help when we get this whole capitalistic greed fest figured out and fixed. It may take a while so please hold on. Were coming. Posts like this are often considered as motivational and thought to be encouraging and insightful. For some they work that way. But it is important to not lose your humanity in a tangle of buzz words and new age self help concepts that are mixed with corporate propaganda intended to shift the responsibilities that are inherit with basic human decency and the equitable operation of society. Peace and love for everyone. Help for those who need it.
Posted on: Mon, 11 Aug 2014 19:56:03 +0000
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