Most of us have occasionally thought, “If only I had a lot of money, I would give a big chunk of it to some deserving entity.” But since we know we don’t have that kind of money we just accept the fact that we can’t give away what we don’t have. If however you discovered a hidden cache, you would probably be excited to give some of it to your good cause. The key element here is that you needed to know you had it before you could give it away.
Before you distribute your good, you have to know what your good is. What do you really have to offer? In our society expertise is often held up as the highest good. Is it? If someone is in pain or struggling and you can’t “fix” their problem, do you really have nothing good left to distribute? How about your silence, your integrity, your peace, perhaps even your own confusion of what to do but that you want to do something – you care.
Do you value those things as good? We say we do but many times we don’t behave that way. “I just can’t face her. I don’t know what to say.” Are magical words the “good” we are looking to distribute? “It’ll be OK.” “Everything happens for a reason.” We are more than willing to share clichés because we don’t know the real good we have to share. How about our humanity, our own sense of vulnerability, our own fears? Many people would ask, “That’s good?” I say it is. I say it is better than magical words and expertise. I say our realness is our good… our willingness to keep going and searching and believing even when we struggle and we doubt. I say the good we distribute is not about answers. It is about our willingness to share the journey with each other, to walk through that valley and hold each others hand. What do you think?
Comments