Hi, I’m Nic. So far, I’ve been the quiet volunteer, not once having blogged. This is because I don’t blog. I just don’t, for whatever reason, and had anyone bothered to ask me, I would have told them so. Yet no one did, and so here I am, feeling almost compelled, criticised and a disappointment, but only almost compelled to blog.
The question of whether or not to blog being wrapped up, I’m left only with the question of what to blog about. You see, that’s where the problem of why I do not blog comes into play. I don’t journal, diary, take pictures, scrap book or express my subconscious in abstract art in any way, really. I never have. I’ve tried, and I’ve the embarrassing art projects to prove it, but I’ve never succeeded, or at least with any consistency. So I’m just going to start writing from an approach of writing rather than journaling, and see where that gets me. I’ll exercise some restraint, though, so hopefully the result won’t be the nonsensical poppycock that I usually get when I start writing. Let’s try it out.
Something that has been on my mind recently has been a statement that I heard earlier this week. Spurred on by the study on Paul Farmer that our volunteer group is doing, someone said that, “A preference for the poor is the best mindset for a doctor or aid worker to have.” This is a statement that bothered me, and I wasn’t sure why. It sounds good, right? What’s wrong with it? Why doesn’t it sit well with me? Well, it’s not just enough for me to say, “I don’t like it,” and give it no more thought. I have to come up with a better generalised statement for me to be satisfied. Well, here’s my problem with it.
It’s not just the poor that get sick. Not just the poor who need help. Everyone gets tumors. Everyone gets tuberculosis. Everyone gets orphaned. Everyone has needs. I say this in full knowledge that TB has historically spread more prolifically among the poorer classes of the world. I say this in full knowledge that there’s no reason why a member of the upper class should die of TB. I say this in full knowledge that to condemn someone for having chosen to focus on the upper class is offensive and is pure bigotry.
To think in terms of poor and rich is what leads to class wars in the first place. Maybe that’s wishful thinking, and I’m sure it goes against the fundamentals of this objectivism of which I am supposedly an advocate, but it is destructive for a doctor or aid worker to think in terms of class. So let’s change the statement that lead me to all of this thinking.
“A preference for the needy is the best mindset for a doctor or aid worker to have.” I like that quite a bit more. I’m almost satisfied, comfortable and fine with, but only almost satisfied with this new rendition. The problem that this change poses, the difference between these two statements, is a primal issue of mankind. Judgment, and the fact that none of us are fit to pass it on others. Everyone is needy, and everyone is quite a lot, therefore every doctor and aid worker must pick a part of the needy to work with. Some might be more glamourous, some might be harder, some might be more glamourous in different ways. After all, when was the last time a volunteer group in South America did a study on a foot therapist in Beverly Hills?
We all have different needs, we all have different callings, and most importantly, we are all not one of us fit to judge another. So one more adjustment to the statement.
“A preference for each other is the best mindset for anyone to have.”
That satisfies me. Travesty has no preference, so neither can we.
Ephesians 5:21 – And further, submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
-Nic
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