"Easy to be hard..."

"How can people be so heartless
How can people be so cruel
Easy to be hard
Easy to be cold

How can people have no feelings
How can they ignore their friends
Easy to be proud
Easy to say no

And especially people
Who care about strangers
Who care about evil
And social injustice
Do you only
Care about the bleeding crowd?
How about a needing friend?
I need a friend

How can people have no feelings
How can they ignore their friends
Easy to be hard
Easy to be cold
Easy to be proud
Easy to say no…"
- MacDermot, Rado, Ragni

Today, I woke up with this song rattling around in me.  It was an anthem of promise in 1969. In those days my friends and I clutched it to our hearts like folded flags of social protest. We pledged that this song would never let us forget that the collective demise of individual responsibility for the greater good was something to mourn. We were the "all you need is love" generation. We imagined a world free of greed and self-interest. It was a dream worthy of our young hopes.  Today, this song does not resonate with sweetness. I don't find examining the breadth of my own contribution to fighting social injustice and economic inequity, 39 years later, easy. We are in the midst of a severe economic crisis. I somehow deluded myself into thinking that I was still actively protesting a haves and have-not society with most of my economic choices. But lately I am glaringly aware that I have tolerated chapters in my life when I thought I deserved the privilege of giving my children opportunities and things that I didn't demand for my urban neighbors. This is weighing heavily on my heart this morning. 

I am someone who does can about strangers, I care about "evil and social injustice"…I care about the bleeding crowd.  But am I there for a needing friend?  I don't know.  I don't know if I am there when those who really need help…really need help.  I pray that I am.  I pray today that I am not so caught up in wrestling with the implications of a $700 billion bailout….parsing the details, agonizing over the long term fallout, praying for clarity of thought, wisdom, and discretion on the part of our executive and legislative leaders…that I lose sight of a "needing friend."  I pray that I am awake to the needs of those nearest and dearest to me.  I am asking myself, "does my good friend need a Starbucks visit filled with laughter" more than I need to stay abreast of breaking news on MSNBC, does my mother need a phone call, does my "sister" need a loan, a message of encouragement, a shoulder to cry on?

I pray that I do not lose sight of the one small sapling sitting next to me withering in a drought, as I fuss over a forest of economic woes, global warming, and war.

For me, Three Dog Night's "Easy to be Hard" was always an anthem of protest against the heartlessness of "society's" greed and self-indulgence.  It was always something very far removed from the ideological tendencies of my socialist heart. 

But today I wonder…am I really all that different from the man in the near-armoured Hummer next to me in traffic? Do I hide behind my cell phone waving off the man offering to wash my windows for spare change at a stoplight?  Do I stop and actually speak with the woman at the intersection who is holding a sign that says "will work for food," or do I only roll down my window and hand her a dollar bill before the traffic light changes?  Do I congratulate myself on walking away from a department store bargain on last season's shoes, only to spend it at the grocery store on high-end out-of-season produce our family doesn't need, instead of taking canned goods to the local food bank? Do I live my social principles without self-indulgence?

The world is presenting us with images of poverty, want and despair so alarming that it is "easy to be hard."  Not only easy, but for some of us that hardness may seem critical to navigating this moment in history without falling apart emotionally. For many, the "hardness" is a protective veneer…it keeps poverty, loss, and disaster "out there," and if we can convince ourselves that it hasn't penetrated into the lives of those closest to us, it must not be standing on our doorstep or knocking at the portal of our own lives.

But I am discovering that the most immediate relief from fear of lost assets, is an abundance of love.   Fear of lack is smitten when we engage in a radical love for giving.  Fear of pain…destroyed when our love for extending comfort and gentleness is indulged.  Fear of loss…eradicated by a love for generosity and sharing our extensive spiritual gifts with others.  Fear of hatred…exterminated by a deep and penetrating love for our right to extend kindness…unconditionally.  And the closer the "here" of our giving and the nearness to the "now" of our loving...the better. Don't wait for a big project to present itself. Don't think you have to find the right charity or have a large block of time to serve in that soup kitchen. Those are great goals, but don't wait for those to surface to begin your charitable giving...your protest of social injustice and greed.  Do it right now with those who are most immediately present in your life.  Let the power of that great love within you reach out concentrically touching more, and more…and more with every pebble-like drop in the pool of family, friendship...humanity.

Try it. It feels so good!! And you will feel richer for it...right away.
Kate