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| This picture did not sit well with many Americans and I'm thinking about why. |
We all know someone who gives better gifts to wealthy friends and family members and lesser gifts to those with less. I try to do the opposite. I figure that if someone has a lot, they don't need much, and if someone doesn't have much, they need more. That's generally how I decide what to give when it is gift giving time.
Also, we all notice in ourselves and others, that temptation to value those with beauty, glamour, prestige, and money more than ordinary folks. So, often we let the beauty, glamour, prestige, and money guide our decisions rather than looking a little deeper at who those people really are, what they stand for, who they support, and their overall impact on the world around us.
When multiple hospital workers gathered around Trump and his wife recently in Dayton, I think that they were drawn mostly by his prestige with little thought about who he truly is and what he truly represents. As Trump noted, they treated him like a rock star. Since I don't believe Trump represents or works for the people in the United States well, I was disappointed to see so many provide him with that kind of rock-star attention, and what made it worse was that the situation was not a celebration, but instead a grave and serious situation of life-ending and life-harming senseless gun violence. However, one might counter that by saying the celebration was for the hard work, dedication, and care by so many health workers as well as the fact that some did survive the carnage. I can't deny the value of dedicated health workers or the happiness that some survived.
I too have been drawn in at times by money, prestige, glamour, and beauty rather than looking deeply. I am always disappointed with myself when I think back to a time when I fawned over a very wealthy man because of his wealth alone. Truly what drove me at the moment was the money and the thought that a little money would make my life a lot better. Looking back, I know that was foolish, and thankfully the fawning led nowhere with the exception of disappointment in myself and embarrassment with regard to the few who witnessed the event.
In the news, we see mistakes people make when they let the will to be overly impressed by beauty, glamour, prestige, and money, and what that can do to good lives. I suppose that in many ways, it's a natural impulse, whereas to look deeper and consider a person's actions takes more time, energy, and effort.
There's nothing wrong with glamour, beauty, prestige, and money, but there is something wrong with being impressed with those attributes if what lies beneath those characteristics is poor character, greedy initiatives, or criminal behavior. I'll never forget the scene in the movie, Spotlight, when the young man tells his mother about the priest's abuse, and the mother does not believe her own son because she is enamored by the priest's prestige and her superficial view of who the priest was. When it comes to whom we support, value, emulate, and at times, jump into a photo with, we do have to think deeply about who that person is, the context, and if we support that person in deeper ways beyond the glamour, beauty, prestige, and money they exemplify.