Friday, March 7, 2008

Sharing and Taking...

When we have really, really good days - sharing is easy - I think we would all agree that when payday comes around, we are less apt to share our last $37 dollars - we are less likely to buy a lunch, or pick up office kitsch from your co-workers (everything from Future Farmers of America Pig Sponsorships to Sally Forth Gift Wrap Paper)....

That's not the sharing I am talking about - it is not the sharing that you see when kids are telling secrets and giggling, and it is not the sharing that comes from the necessity to share - it is the willingness to give time, and take what is given and, simply put - cherish the time and the care that you can get when you can get it.

That may be a sad commentary on folks in my generation - I am by no means implying that we should take what we can get, but I am reinforcing the belief that giving without reward or taking without reciprocation is generally the way of the world. To expect commitment in today's world, other than to obligations and responsibilities, is a strech - I am not an oracle, and can't see into the lives of the billions of folks around - but I have seen enough of them across the United States in the past 11 years of travel that this is the norm - take the businessman who can't say thanks to the coffee barista, or the lady who is shocked by the simple act of someone holding a door, or the child who nervously walks away in a stupor after you compliment their cool baseball cap...

Different approaches are needed when you share. It is selfless - that makes it no easier, makes it no more gratifying, and sometimes makes it down right miserable - but it is the way things are, and perhaps, the way things should be. An expectation of a smile, or a thanks, or a commitment should never be the answers looked for. It is a tough place to be - to decide whether to invest time and energy in that type of openness, it is never fun to think about the returns - but then again, it would be best if that simple plain fact of the act of sharing - right then, right there, right now - could be enough.

I have been reading the teachings of Buddha, and with the exception of every other page being written in Japanese manuscript, it's message is pretty much the same as every other religious book I have read - but the concept is more novel in that there is no heaven and hell, only a progression towards reaching that state of enlightment to cure all ills - and not to mention a large number of parables about snakes. Reading this work prompted the sharing conversation, among several other conversations that I have had over the past couple of months - what do I have a right to expect? Am I entitled to some return? The answer, bluntly, is no - we cannot own someone else's soul, but we can touch it from time to time by giving. We can promise our hard work, our effort, our time - and sometimes, that may be enough, other times, it may not.

I love sharing right now - that's the elixir that I have, and granted, it may be snake oil or it may be the cure for all that ills, but right now, sharing seems to be the perfect medicine that keeps everything else in balance...

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