Adversity's Blessing
When empathy spontaneously arises, we sense the power of love as a blessing revealed by adversity. How embarrassing it is to see how preoccupied we have been with our own petty concerns! Seeing how affection stirs people to acts of selflessness inspires us to extend ourselves as well. With loving-kindness we see the needs of others and respond.
- Judith L. Lief, "Welcome to the Real World"
Over the past several days I have spent hours engaged in the Machiavellian business of my local school board. A school is slated to close and every possible reason by those impacted is being thrown out in an attempt to stop the event. Racism, classism, lack of transparency and the list goes on.
Whenever someone’s ox is being gored they respond. I am empathetic to their concerns; I would not want my neighborhood school to close either. Much of what is driving the decision is out of the school board’s hands. Our funding comes from the State not from our local taxes. Oh we can build buildings but the State provides us the money to populate those buildings with teachers, desks, computers and books. Each year that number has gone down for over a decade.
I don’t begrudge the opponents of the school closing their indignation and anger. But other than expressing empathy I don’t know how it can be made right for them in a responsible manner long term. They are not the only school population in the district.
That phrase in the above quote, “With loving-kindness we see the needs of others and respond,” hangs in my mind. What to do? I guess I will try and start by expressing my affection for the school, its teachers and its students. Where I go from there is an open question.
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