Sharing

Quote of the day:
“When wealth and the wealthy are valued in the city, virtue and good men are less valued. What is valued is practiced, what is not valued is not practiced.”
--Plato

We don’t understand sharing. We think the word belongs either in kindergarten or as a label for a computer process.

Some people loathe the word. Indeed, some hate it so much that if the word is spoken in their presence, they will run you over with their Hummer.

Speaking of kindergarten, Robert Fulghum, in his well-known book, called sharing one of the things about life that we learned in kindergarten.

But, of course, we didn’t learn it. Not really.

The core of the problem is, as I said before, that we have trouble doing it because we don’t understand it. We don’t understand sharing because there are so few opportunities to learn about it in our daily lives.

Sharing is not supported in our culture, except at miscellaneous times of crisis, when the news is overrun with stories of what we see as sharing. I say it that way because so often people mean well and view themselves as generous, but they are just giving away things they don’t want.

Sharing involves sharing things that you value--your stuff and your time. More than this, sharing involves giving yourself, and allowing those with whom you are sharing to also share with you.

It’s a two-way street. It’s integral to the value of sharing.

Question: can we open ourselves to another to allow them to share with us, as well as us sharing with them?

This is, after all, how life gets better.