Hi everyone, welcome back! Last week, I examined beliefs around a human being’s uniqueness and in the process understood the reasons why the light of this uniqueness gets dimmed as we go through our lives! This week, I would like to examine whether those of us who have some money or lots of it, have a responsibility to donate or give away at least some of that money to our fellow humans who don’t have enough!
Belief: The rich have a responsibility to donate at least some of their wealth to the people/charities!
Last weekend, as my family was driving back home from a trip to Costco; while we were stopped at a traffic light; my 4-and-a-half-year-old daughter, who sat in the back seat, noticed an old woman who was standing on the divider. My daughter curiously asked us about this old woman. She wanted to know who this woman was and what was she doing standing there. I explained to my daughter that this old woman was asking people for money because she didn’t have any. And in response, my daughter said ‘oh’ and soon the light turned green, so, we started to make the left turn. However, as soon as we made the left turn, my daughter declared that we were ‘mean’ because we didn’t give that old woman some money. And because I wasn’t expecting that kind of response from my daughter; without giving it much thought, I tried to explain to her how we were not mean people just because we chose to not give the old woman some money. I explained that even though that woman needed money, it wasn’t our responsibility to give her money. If we wanted to, we could have, but in this case, we didn’t want to, therefore, chose not to! And that doesn’t make us mean or bad people!! And although, as soon as I was done explaining, my daughter probably was satisfied with my answer because she didn’t say anything afterwards or maybe she was trying to understand the meaning of the word ‘responsibility’; however, as I sat there thinking about what I just said and although I completely agreed with what I had just said, in my own mind, my explanation still felt a little too harsh.
Thus, since this incident, I have been thinking a lot about all the reasons why people who have a little more or maybe a lot more than others would even think about donating their money. Do people donate because they want to help the needy? Do people donate because they think their list of wrongdoings could be balanced by doing something good and therefore choose to donate their money? Do people feel the pain of the needy and that’s why they donate their money? Do people choose to donate based on their religious or spiritual teachings? Do people donate for tax breaks? Do people donate because they care about the plight of humans and want to create a better community. Folks, there could be a variety of reasons including all the reasons that I just mentioned above as to why any human being would donate their money. And honestly, it is a very noble thing to donate your own money to help someone else but what I have been trying to understand is this – are we mean and bad people if we choose not to help others and/or donate our money? As human beings, are we responsible to help people by donating not just our money but our time? And since the biggest question in my mind is about responsibility, lets first explore what responsibility is and how is it that humans behave when they feel they are responsible for something.
So, one of the meanings of the word responsibility is ‘obligation’ and I think we all know how it feels when we are obligated to do something – anything! When we are obligated, we feel like we are being forced to do something against our wishes. We feel like we could be doing something else – something better. We feel like life is unfair when we are doing something out of obligation. We feel like we are trapped under this obligation. We feel like we didn’t want to be where we are today. We feel like other people are having so much fun unlike us. We feel cheated in life, by life itself!! So, now that you know how ‘being responsible for something’ makes us feel about that thing and our life in general, would you still want humans to be responsible for donating their money and/or time? Don’t you think if we just took away the aspect of responsibility, more people would actually want to donate? And they would want to donate because believe it or not folks, most people are good people regardless of what you hear in the media most of the time. Most people want to do the right thing. But if you are still doubtful about the human race and don’t quite trust their generosity until they are backed into a corner, think about this. Think back to all the tragedies that we have faced as a nation. Think back to all the tragedies that your own communities have faced. Do you remember what had happened in the face of those unspeakable moments? Nobody spoke – quite literally; they just hugged and cried together! They just loved and hurt together! They just raised money for the needy together! And it didn’t quite matter who was who but they just prayed together! And I don’t think in those moments of utter desperation, anyone felt obligated or responsible! I don’t think anyone felt like they had to cry or hug or love or pray together. They just did because they wanted to – because they were good people!
Folks, so many times, we expect the rich to chip in because they have so much and because they simply should! But I think we should examine why is it that we expect so much from the people who have made a lot of money. I think it’s because at some very deep level, we are jealous. We are jealous because we wanted to be them but we could not, so, by making them responsible for footing the bills and doing the good deeds, what we are doing is somehow getting rid of that responsibility ourselves. But here is a thought – what if it’s nobody’s responsibility. What if, it’s just a choice. A choice to feel good about yourself and your life by donating instead of feeling responsible or obligated to donate! Can you feel the difference?
And as always, feel free to leave a comment if you feel like leaving one. And until next time, donate, if you feel like donating 🙂
