Fossil fuels are considered a non-renewable natural resource. They will some day run out. My overconsumption does impact other's ability to access those resources. Same is true of gold, silver and titanium. But there are two very precious resources for human survival that are not scarce. In fact, the more we use them, the richer they grow and there is more of them to go around: Love and knowledge.
I have been teaching for 14 years now and I am pretty sure that if one of my students masters the content of my science class, it does not diminish what is left for the others to learn. Any field of knowledge is enriched as more and more people access it, use it and then are able to contribute to it by their insights and experiences. Our current grading system creates the myth that knowledge is scarce and if you have it, then I can't have some or all of it. So children compete for grades instead of for knowledge and understanding and define themselves by these arbitrary measures of their achievement instead of by their contributions to society.
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| Photo Credit: Paulette Rodriguez |
We don't have to be stingy with love either. We will definitely not run out if we use more and more of it. I am particularly concerned about withholding love and compassion from children, out of fear that they will be "spoiled". When I was starting out as a mother, I read somewhere that you only spoil children when you do something for them that they can do for themselves. A child that is anxious, scared or confused does not have the skills to deal with these unknown emotions. Showing love and compassion will not spoil him. A child that does not know how to speak and act respectfully, does not learn that from an angry and indignant adult. "The path to guidance is one of love and compassion, not of force and coercion," says the Báb, the nineteenth century Iranian Prophet. Seeking to understand, is not letting the child "get away" with anything. Showing empathy does not mean we don't hold the child accountable for his actions and require him to make amends. Children are spoiled when they are allowed to get away with not taking responsibility for their actions, for abdicating their self-control, for thinking that they are the center of the universe. As parents, we can contribute to the spoiling when we make excuses for our children in the name of advocating for them.
Children who have known love, will grow into adults that show love. And the cycle continues. The only way we will ever run out of love is if we stop loving. Hoarding love, spoils love.
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The message of this post needs to be spread far and wide! I pray with all my might that everyone who reads this will pause and examine whether scarcity or an abundant mental surrounds these two ideas in their own lives- not what we believe to be true but examining if what we believe is what we are living out day-by-day. I am constantly in battle with not taking on an ideology of scarcity. It is such a prevalent aspect of our society...think of advertising, college entrance, wealth, social media and how one person's success is judged or diminished by others. We have got to do better in our thinking if we want to live better. Our kids need us to have an abundant mentality, not a fearful, scarce one.
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