This is a question that has been asked at many different times in many different ways by many different cultures with many different expected answers, and has been answered in many different ways. I find it interesting how often this question is asked and how often the “right” answer is understood, but not followed.
I will give a few examples:
Do I make enough?
Do I have enough?
These are questions where the answers may be understood as yes, but we continually desire more and then work to fulfill our desires. Now I realize I am not selling anything new here, and therefore will move on (I’ve said enough).
I remember, back when my wife and I lived in Tulsa, a man that occasionally knocked on our door. He would first ask for money, to which we would ask if there were other ways that we could help. He was quick with his answer and I found myself in the car driving him to Burger King for a Whopper, fries, and a Coke (no water for him as he was schizophrenic and worried about the government control over water). He would stop by in the winter for a new coat and then again for another Whopper run. This went on for about nine months before my wife and I moved to the Chicago area. My wife and I were confronted with a reasonable question: How much is enough?
When does one tell a needy person, no more? Is there a limit? Do we gauge how capable he or she is, and then decide? Do we create weekly evaluations and give based on their performance?
I suggest we GIVE. I suggest we give until we feel we are being taken advantage of, and then continue to give. I suggest we give more than a Whopper, fries and a Coke. I suggest we give until we are no longer capable of giving. I suggest we give until we realize that they are our brothers and sisters whom we love and to whom we freely give.
Although this is contrary to my first inclination, to capitalism, and to society in general and specific, this is how I ought to be in order to understand true love.
I am nowhere close to where I want to be. I find that when I take a small step in the “right” direction, I am immediately confronted with the larger steps in the “right” direction that were not taken. But I will not give up the pursuit of this reachable ideal.
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3 comments:
I agree. I suggest we give without reservation. But I think it would be wise to answer the next part of the question. How much is too much to spend on yourself? Is it bad to indulge in a Ben and Jerrys ice cream as it is excessive, or do we draw the line at a Mercedes Benz S.U.V.? This ties into the question, When is enough...
Is it healthy to have a limit in mind at all? Maybe we should just keep giving without regard to how it will impact us. But if we continue along that line of thinking, eventually our wives and children don't eat because we're feeding everyone else on the block. Then is it enough to give some, sometimes? I don't think so. I think we need to give until we are uncomfortable. Like the widow, who "of her penury hath cast in all the living that she had," we should give till we feel poor. But how much is enough to make us feel uncomfortable? And so we come back to your original question. Well asked, friend.
Clint,
It does seem that one "enough" affects the other "enough".
Chuck,
I think that I am far away from the line of given to the extent that my family is deprived. I will deal with this when it becomes a problem (a good problem to have).
That said, I believe I am beyond the line when it comes to damaging my family with pleasure/materialism, as well as neglecting my family for capitalisms sake.
Focusing on potential future issues while neglecting present problems will starve the present focus.
I am sure Clint can find a good Solzhenitsyn quote to fit the bill on the above quirky statement.
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