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Rights and responsibilities



 

 

While employed by another entity, one of my responsibilities was to facilitate team initiatives. I loved it! We would always start off with an activity about communication. “What is communication?” we would ask. And everyone would respond with, “Communication is talking.” So, we would encourage everyone to talk at the same time. “Did any communication happen.” “No,” was their reply, “Because no one was listening.” Ah, ha! So someone needs to be listening to have communication. If no one is listening, all we have is a bunch of babel.

I think that is an issue in society today; we are all talking and no one is listening. When I talk, I am limited to only my perspective. If I listen, I learn new ways, new things, new perspectives.

When people would express their sympathy for me because of my father’s untimely death, I would cover my emotions by saying, “I just hope it skips a generation.” I did that for years until one day my daughter said, “Thanks.” “Oh, I never thought of it that way before.” A new perspective on things. I don’t respond that way anymore.

It seems everyone is talking in our society right now and no one is listening; we aren’t worried about what anyone else has to say. We ignore them, tune them out because we like our opinion and don’t even want to entertain the notion that there could be some other way. We only listen to people who think and act as we do.

After all, we have rights. “It’s my right…” I heard someone say those words at the Annual Conference of the Christian denomination to which I belong at the beginning of June, and I thought to myself, “What about our responsibility to each other, to the earth, to future generations?” But, right now, everyone seems only to worry about me, myself, and I.

I believe it is our responsibility to look out for others: for our children and their future, for people in our community less fortunate than ourselves, for people around the world who are suffering from hunger, injustices, marginalization and war. What can you do, what can we do to help make this a better community, nation, and world where all people can live better lives?

We can cloister ourselves off in our own little world, worry only about ourselves, complain about what we don’t have and ignore all the suffering going on around us. Or we can be part of making a better world for everyone.

While we worry about the price of gas and the rising cost of food, the people of the Ukraine fight for their lives, fight for their homes, their way of life, and struggle to find clean drinking water. What can we do to help?

While we worry about our rights, parents in Uvalde, Texas mourn the loss of their children, and many people in Buffalo, New York mourn the loss of their loved ones. And there’s more!

While we freely voice our opinions, while we are free to post hateful signs in our yards, people around the world are tortured and killed for speaking out against the establishment.

Yes, we have rights, but sometimes the right thing to do is to take care of our responsibilities, to look out for our children and their future, for people in our community less fortunate than ourselves, for people around the world who are suffering from hunger, injustices, marginalization and war. What can you do, what can we do to help make this a better community, nation, and world where all people can live better lives?