The Greatest Gift

"We are heirs to a story that inspired a hundred generations of our ancestors and eventually transformed the Western world. What you forget, you lose. The West is forgetting its story. We must never forget ours." Rabbi Sacks.

 This is important because it is a story of a people who fled slavery in Egypt, survived pogroms and the holocaust.  It's a story of more than just survival but resilience that overcame despair, fear, and self interest.

I write this post because I want to pay attention to the stories we tell and live in, and this warning from Jonathan Sacks asks us what story guides our values today?

When I turn on the radio I learn of celebrities and politicians resigning because of charges of sexual harassment. I learn our Prime Minister who got elected on promises of integrity around consulting First Nations is approving oil pipelines across their territories. I learn of species dying because of pollution. I learn of people fleeing their homes because of fire, flood and violence.  I hear of thousands of poor homeless people dying of overdoses.

What does "the news" tell us about our story?

How will we survive when so many crises seem to loom on the horizon and leadership has been sold to the corporation. Where are our pillars of the community? Where is our social conscience? There are no stories of how we can help fix these crises coming from institutions that have national support. Whatever we had, no matter how imperfect and troubled, is being dissolved into isolated egos competing for more material wealth.

There is an article by Umair Haque on Why We're Underestimating American Collapse.  He lists the social pathologies that America is suffering and then asks us to look at what may happen  "should the world follow the American model — extreme capitalism, no public investment, cruelty as a way of life, the perversion of everyday virtue".

Suppose we write a story about a tribe who cease to care for one another, who, instead of doing what needs to be done, simply congratulate those who find new ways to exploit the vulnerable? What if the story ends with future generations so enamoured with entertainment and new technology they are unable to have real live conversations.

Imagine feeling convinced in ways we cannot articulate, that there is nothing left worth saving.

The greatest gift is the story that reminds us of joy we have felt and that without the love of life we would not have experienced it.  Poems that witness the joy of another. The pain of realizing how much contempt for humanity has been broadcast in order to create "the market" of today.