-Charles Lamb
'I am in misery'
-Maroon 5, Misery
Do you think of the word
'miser' when thinking about the word 'misery'? What is a miser? A miser is
someone who is cheap—someone who spends money very begrudgingly. On the
other hand, a frugal person saves money, but is willing to spend given the
appropriate situation. And then you have the type (hereafter named ‘spenders’)
who will spend money to have fun.
A Christmas Carol
describes a character named Scrooge who seems to be a very popular icon of
misery. Wikipedia: His only "Christmas gift" is allowing his
overworked, underpaid clerk Bob Cratchit Christmas Day off with pay - which he
does only to keep with social custom, Scrooge considering it "a poor
excuse for picking a man’s pocket every twenty-fifth of December!". Keep
in mind Cratchit’s son is Tiny Tim, who dies, possibly because of Scrooge’s
unwillingness to pay Bob a living wage.
Now let me describe to me a type of miser I have encountered in my everyday life. This person has a well-paying (relative to most of society) job. Although this person saves half of his paycheck every two weeks, he uses the rest in frivolous ways such as driving to UC Davis and Milpitas. He doesn’t spend money on anything but gas. This person is me and I have felt quite miser-like these past few weeks.
Now let me describe to me a type of miser I have encountered in my everyday life. This person has a well-paying (relative to most of society) job. Although this person saves half of his paycheck every two weeks, he uses the rest in frivolous ways such as driving to UC Davis and Milpitas. He doesn’t spend money on anything but gas. This person is me and I have felt quite miser-like these past few weeks.
But do you see where I
am going? We all have miserly parts of our lives—parts we are not willing to
relinquish—parts we could not surrender even if we were confronted with the
truth: that our endless pursuit for happiness is both our starting point and
destination in one. We keep our emotions to ourselves and then look on with a
semi-interested glance when others cry on. As if appearing stupid and frivolous
was the worst destination imaginable—that appearing professional and smart were
goals with a foreseeable end.
No.
Ethics tell us that
leading a moral life is possible. In our greed for financial stability, we have
forgotten the importance of intention. It is not enough to appear professional—you
must BE a professional. It is not enough to appear smart—you must BE smart. And
we’ve kind of invested in this notion that you have to be someone you’re not to
get money or something. No. Intention is important.
Jesus said in Matthew 5
(NIV):
21 “You have heard that
it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who
murders will be subject to judgment.’ 22 But I tell you that anyone who is
angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who
says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the court. And anyone who
says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.
‘Raca’ is an Aramaic
term of contempt.
Jesus is talking about
intentionality behind two acts: murder and insult. Of course the two are not
the same. But in some ways, the intention behind the deeds are similar: an
attitude of superiority. When you are insulting someone, you are in some sense
saying, ‘You are not important.’ And it seems to me, murder is similar. Behind
murder is the attitude, ‘That person is not important.’ It’s the poisonous
attitude that your inner reality could somehow deny others’ right to exist—destroying
his or her inner reality.
Now you can call hogwash
on Jesus’ whole attitude toward murder and outward contempt. But what if, ‘Hell’
in verse 22 actually exists on Earth? No I don’t mean concretely or in a way
that everyone could see it visually. What about in ourselves? What if we were
misers and did not even know it? What if we woke up each day and had an
attitude of contempt because of the invisible suffering we were going through
that day or went through in the past? Have I really moved on from my mistakes?
I want to mention
redemption because I think it is possible. Possible for us. You’ve made
mistakes. Move on. Make your intentions lighthearted. It is possible. Don’t
take yourself too seriously and go with the flow at times. Forgive yourself,
and above all, forgive others as a way of forgiving yourself. I am an emotional
person and at the time of this writing, I have a mind to be sad, but I am
actually very happy and fulfilled. I am fulfilled because you have understood
this blog post. Go. Be happy. You are already.
