Perhaps we are enough!
It is my habit to listen to NPR news, read the Tampa/St. Petersburg Tribune, the Huffington Post, various newsletters and sometimes, The Wall Street Journal and other national or international newspapers. Most of the time if I read other newspapers such as The Wall Street Journal it is when I am taking a break at the library. This week The Wall Street Journal is being delivered to my home. Since there is no name on the paper when it is left on my doorstep I can only assume that it is a promotional campaign. I am hopeful that someone in my neighborhood has not subscribed and is looking for it. I have no way of knowing.
Not surprising, the United States Presidential campaign elections news continues to dominate much of the news. Of course the ongoing search for those responsible for the Brussels terrorist attack also continues to be a front page item. This week the Panama Papers “pulled back the curtain on the secret financial dealings of the world’s rich, powerful, and, in some case, allegedly corrupt” (Wall Street Journal, April 5, 2016, page A12). The leak of information about secret shell companies to hide huge amounts of money by many political and economic leaders of the world does not, I am sure, come as much of a surprise to many. At least the fact this happens is not very surprising news. Wealthy, so called reputable business and political leaders have been legally doing everything they can to assure that they keep more of their money for a long time. As more is revealed particular names may or may not be a surprise.
A story about health care professionals dealing with so-called difficult patients also caught my interest.
Another story which caught my attention was decrying the commitment by California and New York to move towards a minimum $15.00 an hour income.
The following excerpt from a story reported on NPR also made a connection in my mind with other stories:
“Almost the entire dance floor is covered by table seating," he says. "So in a place where people would have danced and mingled and get to know each other is really privatized space. Just like the rest of Shanghai, where everybody wants to own real estate, now young people really want to own real estate at the clubs."
We bump into Teejay, a local university student from Nigeria and a promotor whom the club pays to bring in customers. Teejay, who doesn't want to give his full name because he's not supposed to be working on a student visa, says rich Chinese spend at least $500 for a table and a lot more on drinks.
"They buy 30 bottles of champagne and they only get to drink two," says Teejay. "They just want to show off."
"The club takes it back," says Teejay. "It's the club's profit."
It seemed to me that all of these stories have a common thread running through them. The common thread is the attempt, often seemingly desperate, for we humans to feel important. It would seem that we humans for all of our seemingly auspicious abilities compared to most animals have a difficult time being satisfied with being a relatively small part of the whole which makes up planet and the universe(s) which we can currently envision. Whether it is the money changers, empire builders, elaborate pyramids creators, collectors of rare spices, precious jewels, chariots/very expensive cars, or castles which morph into McMansions, expensive gym gear, a table at a Shanghai club, the patient who has an endless list of physical complaints, an extensive amount of body art, bigger guns/weapons of mass destruction, a salary which collects more simple interest then a neighborhood of ordinary families earns in a year, or one of the other creative ways of attempting to make ourselves feel worthwhile by proving we are more than, the essential goal is the same. It may be with some, such as one finds in certain professions, in hard core prisons or in terrorist groups, the way we attempt to prove our importance and, thus, our worth is by proving how much we don’t care about what others think of us Our importance, and thus our worth, is determined by how much others fear us.
Money, beyond a certain basic amount is about proving one’s worth. We can use it as the symbol of our worth or to do good deeds such as those done by such folks as the Zuckebergs and the Gates.
Another way that we humans attempt to prove our worth seems to be the number of “I got you’s we can accumulate. If we can identify all the bad (greedy, unethical, sleazy) people we will distinguish ourselves as one of the “good” people and, thus, earn our own worth. Rarely do we see ourselves as pursuing the same goal as those we have “caught.”
It is interesting to think what might change if we recognized our common interest, goals and, yes, vulnerability We might then quite pretending as if “thou” (as Martin Buber might say) were so different than “I.” If our basic vulnerability and fear is exactly the same then we would not be so focused on responding to fear from the center point of our own fear. This then might allow for addressing the core issue of our vulnerability. Obviously this would require the courage to take that leap of faith that a different approach might lead to different – more effective – solutions.
Perhaps! Perhaps we are enough.
Written April 5, 2016
It is my habit to listen to NPR news, read the Tampa/St. Petersburg Tribune, the Huffington Post, various newsletters and sometimes, The Wall Street Journal and other national or international newspapers. Most of the time if I read other newspapers such as The Wall Street Journal it is when I am taking a break at the library. This week The Wall Street Journal is being delivered to my home. Since there is no name on the paper when it is left on my doorstep I can only assume that it is a promotional campaign. I am hopeful that someone in my neighborhood has not subscribed and is looking for it. I have no way of knowing.
Not surprising, the United States Presidential campaign elections news continues to dominate much of the news. Of course the ongoing search for those responsible for the Brussels terrorist attack also continues to be a front page item. This week the Panama Papers “pulled back the curtain on the secret financial dealings of the world’s rich, powerful, and, in some case, allegedly corrupt” (Wall Street Journal, April 5, 2016, page A12). The leak of information about secret shell companies to hide huge amounts of money by many political and economic leaders of the world does not, I am sure, come as much of a surprise to many. At least the fact this happens is not very surprising news. Wealthy, so called reputable business and political leaders have been legally doing everything they can to assure that they keep more of their money for a long time. As more is revealed particular names may or may not be a surprise.
A story about health care professionals dealing with so-called difficult patients also caught my interest.
Another story which caught my attention was decrying the commitment by California and New York to move towards a minimum $15.00 an hour income.
The following excerpt from a story reported on NPR also made a connection in my mind with other stories:
“Almost the entire dance floor is covered by table seating," he says. "So in a place where people would have danced and mingled and get to know each other is really privatized space. Just like the rest of Shanghai, where everybody wants to own real estate, now young people really want to own real estate at the clubs."
We bump into Teejay, a local university student from Nigeria and a promotor whom the club pays to bring in customers. Teejay, who doesn't want to give his full name because he's not supposed to be working on a student visa, says rich Chinese spend at least $500 for a table and a lot more on drinks.
"They buy 30 bottles of champagne and they only get to drink two," says Teejay. "They just want to show off."
"The club takes it back," says Teejay. "It's the club's profit."
It seemed to me that all of these stories have a common thread running through them. The common thread is the attempt, often seemingly desperate, for we humans to feel important. It would seem that we humans for all of our seemingly auspicious abilities compared to most animals have a difficult time being satisfied with being a relatively small part of the whole which makes up planet and the universe(s) which we can currently envision. Whether it is the money changers, empire builders, elaborate pyramids creators, collectors of rare spices, precious jewels, chariots/very expensive cars, or castles which morph into McMansions, expensive gym gear, a table at a Shanghai club, the patient who has an endless list of physical complaints, an extensive amount of body art, bigger guns/weapons of mass destruction, a salary which collects more simple interest then a neighborhood of ordinary families earns in a year, or one of the other creative ways of attempting to make ourselves feel worthwhile by proving we are more than, the essential goal is the same. It may be with some, such as one finds in certain professions, in hard core prisons or in terrorist groups, the way we attempt to prove our importance and, thus, our worth is by proving how much we don’t care about what others think of us Our importance, and thus our worth, is determined by how much others fear us.
Money, beyond a certain basic amount is about proving one’s worth. We can use it as the symbol of our worth or to do good deeds such as those done by such folks as the Zuckebergs and the Gates.
Another way that we humans attempt to prove our worth seems to be the number of “I got you’s we can accumulate. If we can identify all the bad (greedy, unethical, sleazy) people we will distinguish ourselves as one of the “good” people and, thus, earn our own worth. Rarely do we see ourselves as pursuing the same goal as those we have “caught.”
It is interesting to think what might change if we recognized our common interest, goals and, yes, vulnerability We might then quite pretending as if “thou” (as Martin Buber might say) were so different than “I.” If our basic vulnerability and fear is exactly the same then we would not be so focused on responding to fear from the center point of our own fear. This then might allow for addressing the core issue of our vulnerability. Obviously this would require the courage to take that leap of faith that a different approach might lead to different – more effective – solutions.
Perhaps! Perhaps we are enough.
Written April 5, 2016
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