Monday, January 14, 2008
Guilt
I have been reading a book called The Lucifer Effect which is about how seemingly good people can do bad things. It is quite difficult to read as it details horrible acts committed by people who think of themselves as good. As I read this I was overwhelmed with a sense of existential guilt that I somehow am not doing enough with what I've been given. I wonder, not just after reading this book but often, why I am so lucky to have the things I do. Yes lucky. I know I'm blessed and I feel that, but many times it seems to me a certain amount of luck. The fact that I get to have a comfortable life; I can drive less than a mile and get all the food I want, I have running water and relatively cheap electricity. I don't live in fear each day that my loved ones are in very imminent danger of death or injury. I know when I put Molly down for her nap that I will see her again in two hours. I wonder why is it that I get to sit in my living room on a Sunday night and read the paper, watch Molly make Bryan give her a piggyback ride around the room, listen to her sing Jesus wants me for a 'sun-beep', while at the same time some other woman, in some other place doesn't know for certain that she will be safe for the next day, or hour, or minute and has to struggle for the very minimum of needs. I think of the atrocities that are occurring at this very moment in Darfur, Iraq, and other places, while I sit comfortably here at my computer knowing that soon Bryan will be home and we will have dinner and talk and go to bed in a safe place to wake up again to a new day of ease and comfort. I still don't have any good answers to this question, or feel that there really are any. The only thing I've come up with is that I need to be vigilant in living up to this responsibility. Although how to go about doing that, too, is a bit of a mystery as well.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
I know what you mean, Amber. Although I will say that my life isn't quite as good as others, I certainly am not middle class, but even in my poor economic state, I still enjoy the same security & safety that you describe. I may not be rich, but just by virtue of living in this country, I am amongst the richest 10% in the world.
The way I see it, our relatively comfortable lifestyle come with responsibility. We live in a democracy, right? Or @ least in theory we do. So we have the duty, because it is within our power, to take control of our government by writing our congress persons & senators to tell them what we want. Stop this war in Iraq, stop the foolish government spending on big corporations. Stop it! Just stop it! 1 voice may not be enough, but when you are 1 voice amongst millions who are all asking for the same thing, that's a lot of voters, & elected officials tend to listen. What difference can you make? If you don't do it, & every1 else feels their little voice won't make a difference, then nobody will do it, & it will never change. So are you going to be part of the silent problem, or part of the vocal solution. Then encourage others to do the same. Together, we can all make a difference.
It is not sin to live in luxury. But it is sin to live in luxury, & ignore the poor.
To put this in perspective, a rich (wo)man does not help as many people by giving away all his/her money to the poor & making him/herself poor, as (s)he does by maintaining his/her economic success, so that (s)he may bless many continuously.
Post a Comment