Meditation on a Good Cup

Sometimes it is tiring to fight constantly against the world, to remind myself that it isn't about money or fame, but about considering myself and others with fair regard, and with sober judgement. I sip my coffee, grown and nurtured in the great old continent by the poor of that land. I realise that I have so much more than they, and so little daily awareness of what I owe.

At the bottom of my cup is a slight residue of the ground. When I wash my cup, it is a libation to the memory of those people. It is literally the least I can do. And that too saddens me as it is done.

Wishing for Wealth

Sometimes, as Jesus said to Saul, you ask, "Why should you kick against the pricks?"

The thing is that the circumstances of life can be resisted if you assume the existence of free will. Indeed, if the will has some freedom, you have a duty to use it, since freedom of will differentiates you from inanimate matter.

However, sometimes it doesn't make sense to strive for things that cannot logically be attained. For example, hoping that everyone will be rich is silly, because humans always rank each other, and if everybody is rich, nobody will be happy.

The pragmatist idealists then reply, "Yes, but surely we can hope for sufficiency, that everyone will have enough?"

Certainly! The problem is that a significant number of humans are unhappy about mere sufficiency. Indeed, many of those in the grey zone between poverty and wealth are very, very unhappy even though they are not poor. They subsist, survive, have enough... but it is never enough.

As Jesus also said, "The poor you will have with you always." There will always be those who claim they are poor when they aren't, and resent those who are rich enough to give their excess to the truly poor.

Strikingly, the people who want to eliminate the very wealthy for 'Christian' reasons are also the people who don't want the wealth redistributed because that would be Marxist. Well, it should also be noted that Marx got his ideas from the Book of the Acts of the Apostles, chapters 2 and 4.

Go figure.

Poverty

"They were born in poverty, but they should stay in school." I saw this line in one of those little Facebook ads that pops up at the side while you're thinking of something else.

I wondered what if you swapped the nouns. "They were born in school, but they should stay in poverty."

Or what if you changed the verbs around. "They were staying in school, but they should have been born in poverty."

Of course, what if staying in school IS being in poverty? No no, can't think that way, we're all taught that people with more education earn more. The statistics seem to shown that. Then again, maybe rich people go to school more.

Urgh. I must learn not to think so hard about advertisements.