Dec. 3, 2014

For this is humility: to see yourself to be the same as the rest – Abba Motius

We will never have true civilization until we have learned to recognize the rights of others.
Will Rogers

Ever since I ran across this saying while looking for a Wednesday Word, it has created a variety of reactions from me.  My first thought when I saw it was of the parable of the Pharisee and tax collector at prayer:  “I thank you, Lord, that I am not like this tax collector.”

We would all agree that there is not a lot of humility in the character of the Pharisee.  Besides overvaluing his own position with God, he fails to see an obvious truth that nobody is perfect.  He also fails to see that he and the tax collector probably share more similarities than differences.

At the very least, the Pharisee could have uttered, “There, but for the grace of God, go I.”

To be able to see ourselves the same as the rest can have important implications.  One thing it has the ability to do, I think, is to stir a sense of compassion toward those we might normally ignore or look down on.  If I am the same as them, how might I feel if I were ignored?  If I am the same as them, how might I feel if I were welcomed into places I normally thought off limits?  If I am the same as them, how grateful would I be if I were noticed?

And that reaction of projecting myself into the situation of another person led me to find the quote from Will Rogers.  Once I humble myself and see others the same as me, then it's not too much of a stretch to recognize that they also have rights I need to pay attention to.

But the more I thought about this, the more something kept gnawing at me.  And that something was that I kept referring to those people as just that – some anonymous group of Them and Others who I attempt to humanize by saying, “That could be me.”

By an accident of birth and by the blessing of education, I am granted assumptions and privileges that a whole host of people less fortunate and/or less lucky than myself are not granted.  I think back to that line in Animal Farm: “All animals are created equal; some are just more equal than others.”

Seeing myself the same as the rest can, and is, a good thing.  But it's not complete.  It's not complete because I still project myself with all of those accidents and blessings onto another person who may have never experienced those.

What if I turned Abba Motius and Will Rogers around?  What if, instead of attempting to humble myself to their level, I elevated the other person to my level?  What if I immediately began to bestow on others the same accidental assumptions and privileges granted to me?

Maybe we need to stop trying to see ourselves to be the same as the rest.

Maybe what we need to be doing is to see others as equally privileged as ourselves.

Amen.