Responsibility

Taking care of yourself is the first rule for having capacity to care for another. Caring for the other is the second responsibility we bear if we accept it. Caring for entire groups is another responsibility; we may do this in context of a job or career. Taking responsibility for one’s community is yet another task we can bear should we care to take it on. A community is a gathering or collection of groups, and is larger than the career assignment. State or regional care is yet a larger commitment, as well as concern and care for the nation-state. Then responsibility leaps across borders to international concerns. Yet larger are global concerns that embrace the planet and its well-being in the solar system.

From that point on the care and nurture of others sweeps to theological dimensions should you so choose. Yet there are those who would say the first paragraph is actually one that begins with God and doesn’t end with it. That may be true, most probably is true, but only if theology is one of your core values.

Surely caring for the self is early in the progression, for only healthy, settled people can care for others. Sometimes jumping ahead to care for others actually heals the caregiver and makes them whole; so progression may be omnidirectional.

Either way, responsibility is up close and personal. It is you and I in the world doing our thing for others that makes the globe a community. It is the human race that matters, not sects, nationalities or other made up differences that brand who is good or bad, rich or poor, or smart or dumb. No, it is the all of us that make the world go around.

Picking responsibilities that matter to you and I remains a personal choice. We cannot do it all. We can care without the doing. That makes us readers and vicarious sharers of news of such matters. It does not make us a player in the doing.

Getting involved is the first step of taking responsibility. Interested in gardening and spreading it to the community? Join the town’s gardening group and watch beautification take root (pun intended!). Like reading news of neighbors and community groups? Write a blog, newsletter or newspaper column and gather the information to share with others. Think the local park district could do more? Join the park board and share your talents, ideas and resources. Same with the town council and other boards and commissions. You are needed. Your understanding of the issues involved will grow and become a broader understanding.

Being interested is one thing. Caring is another. But getting involved takes some time, effort and…courage. When you get involved you become a target. Others will not understand your caring and will read it as motivation for something else. They will attack you as untrustworthy and political. All because they don’t understand. That doesn’t stop them from detracting from your efforts, even though they don’t know the issues, the contexts or the long-term outcomes hoped for by so many.

Americans swear by democracy but make it ugly and treacherous for those brave enough to step forward and serve. Not all caring is motivated by power or money. It is a hard truth they don’t get. So they turn community involvement into a contact sport.

Look at the Illinois governor’s race. Two billionaires pitted one against another. One goes dirty and makes outlandish accusations that too many believe are true just because it appears in public media. Bought media. Ads paid for whether the contents are true or not. No facts presented or adjudicated in a court of law. Slander and misrepresentation is the ‘law of the land’ in Illinois politics. That alone is something to care about and get involved to combat.

It is a shame that a good person caring enough to get involved is automatically slandered and abased.

Don’t the individuals realize they abase all of us in this practice? One then wonders if the state or community is worth saving? Especially because the practice is allowed to continue unabated.

If you care about something, own it and support it. Enjoy it and work to support it. Whether volunteer or elected work is involved, live your convictions and work for the rest of us.

All are needed. That means you and I and the rest of us to boot. Responsibility doesn’t pick us; we choose it.

July 23, 2018