I’m in the midst of cleaning my oven. Actually I just wiped it out a bit, set the racks aside, closed the door and pressed a couple of sensors on the control panel. The door locked and the three hour cleaning cycle began. Sounds like I’m in the cockpit of some kind of flying machine, not in my own kitchen.
Friday afternoon, I was in a large chain grocery store to purchase my bus pass for January, 2019. I was standing behind a man who was very disheveled, seriously needed clean clothes and proper shoes rather than dirty bedroom slippers. I had seen this gentleman several times over the last many months of taking the bus. His purchases were small, but he didn’t have the extra forty cents to complete the transaction.
This is the disparity of my world and the worlds of many others. There are many layers of society between, above and below. There are just as many reasons for the places we each find ourselves. We can be judgmental - as my private mind was - as I tried not to breathe as I stood behind him. Or as I saw that his purchase was the cheapest, smallest package of cigarettes that was available. We can be patient with those who are in obviously unfortunate circumstances. We can be charitable in sharing our own good fortune. Or we can stay judgemental and angry, impatient with the store for letting ‘such people’ in the doors.
Compassion, not pity, but genuine compassion seems one wise choice for a response. Compassion may only be in our silent, private minds because many of us don’t know what to do about deprivation. Gratitude is another response. Gratitude for our own level of privilege is another wise choice that provides a good accompaniment to compassion. That response may encourage us to spend what little we may have, whether in time volunteering or in donations as simple as some change in a cup or a hat.
“No man was ever wise by chance.”
~ Lucius Annaeus Seneca
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