Mercy and Economics
As people in recovery, living in a world that should be in recovery, we need mercy. This society we live in, and most societies in the world, are insane. You know, “insane” as in doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. For instance, we keep thinking trickle-down economics will someday solve our economic problems, and we make all kinds of mistakes our ancestors made because we don’t pay attention to history.
For instance, some people think the New Deal was a bad idea that actually extended the Great Depression and actually hurt the people who benefited from the social supports by making them weak or dependent. Does that also mean the Robber Barons weren’t cruel and manipulative? Do people in power, meaning those whose power is in their money, want what is best for the poor and disenfranchised?
I doubt it. When we are isolated from poverty and menial jobs by wealth and social class, we have trouble understanding or caring about those who struggle every day to pay their bills.
Of course, maybe it’s not what you believe or don’t believe about history or wealth that influences your opinion about the New Deal and government entitlements. Perhaps, instead, it’s your religious views. Maybe you think poverty is a punishment from God, or you believe that anyone can do well if they just work hard enough. That good old white Anglo-Saxon Protestant myth. It’s like believing that if we are good enough, and if we really believe in God strongly enough, nothing bad will ever happen to us. Life just doesn’t work that way.
Mercy, Love, and Compassion
We humans, however, do have the capacity to make life better for those around us. To do that, we can be guided by the religious values of love, compassion, and mercy. In the end, does anything else really matter?
The debate about who much government intervention is good and necessary will continue for as long as we are governed. I can’t make you believe one stance or the other is best. After all, I think it would be great if we lived in a world where we didn’t need government to make laws or provide shelter and food for those who can’t work. Certainly, too much government interference makes giving and working and serving harder, while too little leaves so many of us scrambling to survive and dying from exposure, malnutrition, and lack of medical care.
Do how do we protect and care for those who are disenfranchised, ignored, and abused? Is there some system of governance that would eliminate poverty and ignorance? Are there countries where no one suffers because everyone is guaranteed a place at the table? If so, maybe love and compassion would be unnecessary because we no one would need our care and comfort. And yet, the poor will always be with us, as will the sick and scared and differently-abled. Death, loneliness, and addiction will continue to strike, even for those who get million-dollar salaries.
No matter what we do, we won’t eliminate suffering. Maybe, then, we all need bigger doses of compassion and love so we are willing to give our own food and our own clothing and space in our own homes to those who have less than we have. I mean, so government doesn’t have to.
Overwhelmed by Need
When I ponder that idea, I feel guilty, and then I feel overwhelmed. How could I possibly help even a fraction of the people who need help? Maybe when only a few “hobos” stopped by the farm asking to work in exchange for a meal and a place to sleep in the barn, we could help them. These days, we don’t have farms where work is always welcomed, and we don’t have barns to house the homeless, and we may barely have enough money to keep our electricity on.
Now, I’m all for empowerment. Part of recovery is taking responsibility for your own life. But is it really better for the hungry to starve and the naked to freeze? Do we truly want to go back to the days when workers had no recourse if they were abused and cheated? Sure, we don’t want folks cheating the system, and yet is it really fair if the only people who do the cheating are those who have all the money and power to begin with? And yet it’s not just the rich who get greedy and angry. We all do. And because of our insecurity, we act out.
Needing Mercy Because We Fail Over and Over Again
None of us is immune to ignorance, cruelty, and stinginess. That’s why we need mercy. When we’ve done wrong, we need forgiveness. When we act like idiots, we need compassion. In times of distress, we need relief.
Recovery is a process, and we don’t always get it right, and when we screw up, or relapse, or sin by omission, we need mercy. When we screw up, we hurt, and we need mercy so we can feel better. We don’t need alcohol or sex or control or emotional oblivion. We need mercy. And if we can take in that mercy and feel forgiven and loved, we may find the strength to love others in return.
That’s why the rich and powerful need mercy. They need to feel the compassion and tenderness that mercy offers. I mean, really feel it. As we learn in recovery circles, we can’t control how people will respond to our actions, so we can offer mercy all day and all night, and we still might not change the person who blames and shames and takes without compunction.
Yet what else are we going to do? Try to out-power them? We may need to be warriors sometimes, and I suggest our weapon be love.
So what would that look like?
The Mercy of Recovery
Perhaps it would look like remaking our justice system so we focused on recovery, not punishment. Maybe it would look like offering healing and hope to the mentally ill rather than slashing counseling services and cutting financial support for secure housing. It might look like national health care, so folks wouldn’t lose their homes to pay for their medical bills.
In the end, it would look like mercy, like tending to the wounds of the world and forgiving the wrongs done to us and erasing guilt so people can live in freedom. Just because we offer a path toward transformation doesn’t mean people will be transformed. We can’t make people feel loved; we can only offer love. And if you don’t take in the love that’s offered, and you stay entrenched in your denial of reality, you stay stuck in your addiction. Recovery is about accepting the mercy that’s offered, feeling the love that is given freely throughout the universe, and living a life of freedom and healing, so we can pass on that mercy that changed everything for us.
In faith and fondness,
Barbara
May 2012