Compassion and obligation
Compassion obligates us. Once we recognize our co-suffering, we cannot turn away without diminishing our humanity.
Dear friends: I write this earlier than usual, as I respond to the ongoing news of the attempted (and ongoing) coup, the loss of dear souls to violence and neglect, the increase in fear for those who can no longer make fully autonomous choices about their bodily integrity. And I wonder, what is missing in our political and economic decision-making that has allowed such selfishness and greed to thrive?
What is conspicuous in its absence: compassion.
Compassion obligates us. Once we recognize our co-suffering, we cannot turn away. Or rather, turning away costs us: we know we should not do so, and we feel our diminishment.
To avoid this obligation, and the dilemmas it presents, our so-called leaders jettison compassion. Their operating principles become abstract and inhuman/e. They hide behind codes and interpretations, refusing to come out and encounter their fellow earth dwellers.
One cannot amass great economic wealth or great political power without actively avoiding compassion.
But my friends: the greater wealth and power lies in embracing compassion and the obligations it includes. Ironically, this is an insight of many of the world’s great religions - or perhaps I should say spiritual teachings, for it is the organization of spiritual teaching into religious institutions that strips it of its commitment to compassion.
Long ago I learned that institutions have but one true purpose: to perpetuate themselves. True servant leadership is exceedingly rare, for it puts the well being of the people before the benefit of the institution.
And in order to understand what folk need to thrive, we need compassion and the understanding of obligation it encompasses.
The “fall from grace” that is part of biblical mythology is a metaphor for the choices we make every moment of every day. Do we choose to recognize compassion and fulfill our obligations to one another? Or do we choose selfishness and greed?
If we choose compassion, we also choose to end the policies that perpetuate poverty, discrimination, and exclusion. We also choose to end militarization of borders: nation-states would melt away. We also choose to end the policies and economics that make war possible, even inevitable. We choose to preserve clean air and water, support regenerative agriculture that feeds the soil that feeds we earth-dwellers, end our addiction to fossil fuels. We choose to ensure free and full health care to all, including full choice about whether/when to become parents.
These choices would, indeed, redistribute wealth - redistribute the true wealth of loving kindness and strong, inclusive communities, making all of us richer.
As always, I am deeply grateful for your company on this journey. Be safe and well, and take good care: you are profoundly important to our community.