Brian’s Reflection: Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Everybody, my friend, everybody lives for something
better to come. That's why we want to be considerate
of every man - Who knows what's in him, why he was
born and what he can do?

Maxim Gorky, author; he was born on this date, 1868


Life is about choices. Systems, philosophies, religions, cultures, they all claim “truth” and “right” (well, a very few are more modest!) and offer “wisdom”. But in the end, each of us has to choose. And it’s important what we choose, not only for ourselves, but for the Human community.

I’m with Gorky on the choice he seems to have made in his assumptions about Persons. Lots of people (including that abysmal politician from NH who recently dismissed “handicapped” people as disposable) categorize certain people as more valuable than others. I think that Jesus made a point of hobnobbing with the poor and outcast. He wasn’t saying that the “rich” were less valuable, but that ALL are equally valuable. As Gorky says, every person was born to make a contribution to the race. I wish I could send this Reflection to all our rich politicians! (Not that they’d care, alas.)

The more people we exclude from making their contribution, the more impoverished Humanity becomes. I want to try not to contribute to that poverty.

Brian+