To Those Who Have Been Given Much, Much Is Expected

It struck me that what most people want is to live their lives and love their families. That’s what we want to do. We don’t want power, we don’t want to conquer, we don’t want to annihilate. We want to earn enough money to live clean and satisfying lives with our spouses, our children, our extended families and friends. We want heat when it’s cold, food when we’re hungry, quiet when we’re sleepy, a cool swim when it’s hot, a hug when we’re lonely, work that contributes to society and doesn’t demoralize us or anyone else.

Most of us agree that we should pay our taxes so we have good schools for our children, roads and public services, and help for the sick, elderly and less fortunate. We want to pay our fair share, not Ross Perot’s or Leona Helmsley's share too. We know we all have to contribute to make the world work.

I once heard a Buddhist monk say that with all the horror in the world he’s still so hopeful because so few of the six billion people on the planet are responsible for the horrors of war, large scale famine and mass genocide. He said that most of the horror is generated by a few despots. In that he’s right.

Here’s where it gets sticky. Am I responsible too because I have electronics that absorb lots of energy? Because I have a two-car, two-person family? Am I responsible because I willingly pay my fair share of taxes so we Americans (me and mine) can have a good quality of life and yet a good portion of those taxes are used to support armaments and military? Am I responsible because I vote for the candidate of my choice but do nothing else to get candidates who are ecologists and doves on the ballot to begin with? Am I responsible because, though I preach peace and non-war, I am quietly and secretly relieved at night that we are the big guys on the planet and I am not living in a Palestinian ghetto subject to the pogrom of the Israelis?

It’s a dilemma having so much. "To those who have been given much, much is expected." I have always applied that to the wealthy, the royalty of the world, the power-brokers and born-rich. But it applies to us non-wealthy Americans too. We have been given so much. Even the poor in America, their pain and suffering not-withstanding, are wealthy in comparison to the poor of the Sudan or Calcutta. We have so much, and we work hard for it, and we feel entitled to it. We are generous in sharing our "extra" with those in need or crisis. But we are not willing to give-up anything that really effects the quality of our lives or what we feel we are entitled to. As long as the poor of Sudan are not on our doorstep when we leave for work in the morning, we can believe that the quality of our lives cost others nothing.