Deserving?
What is it we, as humans, deserve? It's a common plaint .. "I do deserve this" "I don't deserve this" .. as though there's some cosmic scorekeeper, and we're supposed to get X.
But do we really deserve ANYthing? As Americans, at least, we are told in our founding document, the Declaration of Independance, that we are endowed with certain inalienable rights .. Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. That simply because we are alive, we deserve these things, and no one has the right to take them away from us. (interesting historical sidenote .. it was originally going to be pursuit of PROPERTY. interesting change). But at the same time, our own government has the right to take these away at times .. you transgress the law, you lose your liberty for a time, at least in certain ways. In death penalty states, you do something horrible enough and even your life can be taken by the state.
And these *simple* rights also leave questions .. we have a right to life. Does that mean that we have a right to health care to stay alive? Or simply that people can't go around killing us? Do we have a right to die? To sell ourselves into slavery for some reason? And, of course, these are only rights that our *government* guarantees us.
I deserve. Such simple little words. And powerful all out of their size. When we claim we deserve something, we've stopped thinking, stopped questioning. We're not asking anymore, when we claim we deserve .. we are demanding as a right.
Do we deserve anything from the Divine? Even our life is a gift, something given freely by our parents. (hopefully without strings attached, but we all know how parents can be). The basic building blocks of life are things the Universe gives freely .. air for us to breathe, sunlight so our crops can grow, soil for it to feed off of. We don't even question these things .. we take them as granted, as automatic. As things we deserve. No, when we say "I deserve" we speak of things that are not freely given, but of things we desire but have thwarted from us.
I'm truly uncertain whether we deserve anything in our lives. We can earn things based on societal norms, but that is not from the Divine directly, but from each other. When we play by the rules, we *deserve* a fair chance to win, for example. But even here we are closing our minds to other possibilities, to the idea that maybe the game is flawed, or a tie is the best option.
But the Divine owes us nothing. It gives us life as a gift, gives us identity and individuality so that it may live through us and so that we may experience life. But the Divine owes us nothing. We should treasure our lives as gifts, not see them as something we are owed, something we are deserved.
Questions:
What do you think you deserve? Why? Who owes it to you and why?
How would your life change if you saw life as a gift instead of something you deserve?
What is the difference between the community owing things to each other, and the Divine owing things to you (other than the ease of collection)? What do you owe to other people? Do you owe anything to the Divine?
But do we really deserve ANYthing? As Americans, at least, we are told in our founding document, the Declaration of Independance, that we are endowed with certain inalienable rights .. Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. That simply because we are alive, we deserve these things, and no one has the right to take them away from us. (interesting historical sidenote .. it was originally going to be pursuit of PROPERTY. interesting change). But at the same time, our own government has the right to take these away at times .. you transgress the law, you lose your liberty for a time, at least in certain ways. In death penalty states, you do something horrible enough and even your life can be taken by the state.
And these *simple* rights also leave questions .. we have a right to life. Does that mean that we have a right to health care to stay alive? Or simply that people can't go around killing us? Do we have a right to die? To sell ourselves into slavery for some reason? And, of course, these are only rights that our *government* guarantees us.
I deserve. Such simple little words. And powerful all out of their size. When we claim we deserve something, we've stopped thinking, stopped questioning. We're not asking anymore, when we claim we deserve .. we are demanding as a right.
Do we deserve anything from the Divine? Even our life is a gift, something given freely by our parents. (hopefully without strings attached, but we all know how parents can be). The basic building blocks of life are things the Universe gives freely .. air for us to breathe, sunlight so our crops can grow, soil for it to feed off of. We don't even question these things .. we take them as granted, as automatic. As things we deserve. No, when we say "I deserve" we speak of things that are not freely given, but of things we desire but have thwarted from us.
I'm truly uncertain whether we deserve anything in our lives. We can earn things based on societal norms, but that is not from the Divine directly, but from each other. When we play by the rules, we *deserve* a fair chance to win, for example. But even here we are closing our minds to other possibilities, to the idea that maybe the game is flawed, or a tie is the best option.
But the Divine owes us nothing. It gives us life as a gift, gives us identity and individuality so that it may live through us and so that we may experience life. But the Divine owes us nothing. We should treasure our lives as gifts, not see them as something we are owed, something we are deserved.
Questions:
What do you think you deserve? Why? Who owes it to you and why?
How would your life change if you saw life as a gift instead of something you deserve?
What is the difference between the community owing things to each other, and the Divine owing things to you (other than the ease of collection)? What do you owe to other people? Do you owe anything to the Divine?
posted by Vieva @ 9:01 AM
2 Comments:
At 8:55 AM,
Star said…
Interesting essay. I think, for myself... I agree with you, largely, but the flip side of this is also true. If the Divine gives us something it's because the Divine gave us something, not because we deserve it; by the same token, if the Divine withholds something, it's because the Divine withheld something, not because we are undeserving. In general. I also think that when you get into the whims of individual gods your mileage may vary... But in that case, we don't get to decide whether we are deserving or not, the Gods do.
Did you ever feel like you'd just been thwacked by your own words? It's unsettling.
Questions:
1. That's a rather broad question. :) What do I deserve from the Divine? Nothing; see above. What do I deserve, unconditionally, from the people around me? Not much more than that. What do I deserve conditionally? Phew--that list is a little longer. If I show up to work on time and do my job, I deserve to get paid. If I do exceptionally well, I deserve an occasional raise. If I am nice to someone, I deserve to be treated at least civilly (if not nicely) by them in return. If I do wrong, I deserve to be punished. If I invite trouble, I deserve to have to deal with it. And so on and so forth. Cause should lead to effect. When you talk about unconditional "deserving", though--there is no cause, so what effect can there be? (Not sure if that answers the whole question or not. I think it does.)
2. Faulty premise; I don't see it as something I deserve. (But, again, that doesn't mean I see myself as undeserving of life either--see above. I just don't think life is subject to deserving or not deserving. It just is.) I will admit that I take it for granted, though. I'm afraid I don't have a good answer to how my life would change if I made a point to see it as a gift... I want to say, of course, that I would find more joy in it and in my relationship with the Divine (generality intentional here). I know myself too well to claim that, though--I have no doubt that it would be true some of the time, probably at least half the time, but in my darker moments I would probably start worrying about the whole "I gave it to you, I can take it back" aspect of life-as-gift. And honestly, I think if I saw it more often as something that was given to me rather than just taking it for granted as something that's just there, I might be more likely to slip into the "I deserve it" mindset.
3. The community owes you things because of the way your life is intertwined with theirs. You do work for them, so they owe you compensation (whether money, barter, work exchange, or even just thanks). You live in the neighborhood, so your neighbors owe you the courtesy of asking your opinion about community decisions that will affect the whole neighborhood. Etc. The Divine does not inherently owe you anything. I think that's the biggest difference right there. What do I owe to other people? Lots of things. I owe the fulfillment of various promises and duties. I don't owe respect in the sense of looking up to everyone, but I do owe respect in the sense of behaving courteously and recognizing that they're human beings too. Things like that. What do I owe the Divine? I'm not sure exactly; I'm working on that. Respect in both senses, I think, and promises and duties probably apply here too. It's an area that needs exploration...
At 11:48 AM,
Vieva said…
sounds like this one kinda got you.
To be fair, it's gotten me too .. it's an essay that jumped out of nowhere and landed on me. :)
And I do think it's important to remember that we don't *deserve* .. we earn. y'know?
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