Repossessing Virtue (3/5)

What resources are you bringing into this situation?

I guess the only answer is just to say that I’m taking baby steps. Trying somehow to follow in my grandmother’s footsteps as well. She had a humble, but infallible commitment to live her life for the betterment of her family and community.

The difference between her family and mine is that her family was blood family, and my family is what I call chosen family. And her community was her church community, and mine is anyone from my elder neighbour living across the way, to my young neighbour living in an orphanage in Kimilili, Kenya.

I’ve been following the Repossessing Virtue series, and I noticed that many of the people on the show are speaking about community, interconnectedness, and our social responsibility. I share their concern that as individuals, we have to learn to behave differently and act more consciously when it comes to our dealings with other people, cultures and environments. I think we must all participate as best as possible. We should take all of our resources that we have and re-create and re-define what it is to live successfully in times like these.

I remember hearing a speech given by Kofi Anan just after he became secretary general of the United Nations in 1997. He spoke about how he thought that governmental decisions in the future would be determined by individuals, masses of individuals, and not by the politicians. He said times will change and governments will no longer tell us how to live rightly, instead we will demand that they do right. And, now, just a little over 10 years later, masses of individuals and not the powerful politicians, lobbyists, voted in your present president. It was a remarkable thing to witness.

Yet, I fear that many people think the job is done, rather then the work is just starting. I worry Americans will forget that all of the global attention given to them throughout the last election years was not only out of wonderment, but it was also a request from people living in other countries for Americans to do right. The decisions made by your government and the actions of the people living in your culture have very weighty consequences on everyone.

I don’t have to be an American to see my life savings disappear in the Wall Street crisis. My life savings were invested in what I was told “solid banking funds”. Well, their worth has depleted over 60% already and I don’t know if they are going to disappear completely. What I do know is that we are not sure whether we can afford to send out children to university. We will definitely not be able to retire before we’re 70, if at all. We could well be the first generation since the Great Depression that will not be able to retire. We are having to do with less and will continue to have to do with less, even though what we have at the moment is very modest.

So, getting back to the question about what resources I am bringing into the present situation… I’d have to say not much, expect perhaps a belief that I must be diligent in my life’s practices. So, I work a lot. Whether it is working at my paid job, or all the volunteer work I do in schools, or on projects with friends, or creative projects, or global projects… I just keep on working.

And by working, I hope that I pass on the meaningful lessons to my children about how to live their lives well. My father lived his life well and he retired at the age I am now, 51. His was a success story of his generation. I am trying to live my life well within the modest means we have, and I hope that in the future my children will look back and also think that my life was a success story of my generation. Though obviously, at least materially, it is not going to be a success story as we currently define success.