“I’m sorry,” the stock boy said, “we’re out of strawberries.”
Really, he seemed to feel “sorry.” What did the stock boy have to do with the absence of strawberries on a cold November day in the American Northeast? The answer, of course, is nothing. Stock boys don’t generally do the ordering for the store, don’t put strawberries on trucks at packinghouses, and don’t grow or pick the strawberries. In addition, they don’t control the environment on the strawberry farms, where growth is dependent on the influx of water, the fertility of the soil, and a temperature conducive to strawberry farming.
There seems to be an abundance of unnecessary guilt in industrialized countries. Those with much (material wealth) feel guilty that they’ve been fortunate (or blessed). Reminds me of a story: When I was a child my mother told me to clean my dinner plate because there were children starving in China. Okay. I ate the food, but I could not understand how my actions were helping the starving children of a faraway land. The reality is that there is much that we cannot do to alleviate the sufferings of others, like providing them with strawberries out of season. When actions are out of our control, there is no actual guilt, no reason to feel sorry, no reason to be negative.
We also cannot make amends to the people who suffered in previous generations. They’re gone. Although there’s nothing wrong about feeling sad for the conditions of their lives, no one can change the irreversible past. No one can go back, say, to antebellum America or ancient Rome and free a slave. No one in the present generation lived in colonial or antebellum America. Better to focus on those who are slaves today. Better to focus on those who are abused today. Better to focus on those who are starving today in some place where you can actually help.
Even when strawberries are in season, they aren’t universally distributed. Some places are not connected by efficient transportation systems capable of delivering the fruit while it’s fresh. Some people are not economically interested in distributing perishable fruit, and others are not interested in buying something with a short shelf life. Each geographic and social circumstance is different in some way. Also, there are some people who just don’t like strawberries.
If you think you owe someone an apology for not stocking the shelf with strawberries out of season, you are not facing the realities of your own limit of responsibility and your own ability to change the world. Of course, there will be others constantly pressuring you to feel guilty about those empty strawberry shelves. You don’t need to listen, and you don’t need to apologize.
Really, he seemed to feel “sorry.” What did the stock boy have to do with the absence of strawberries on a cold November day in the American Northeast? The answer, of course, is nothing. Stock boys don’t generally do the ordering for the store, don’t put strawberries on trucks at packinghouses, and don’t grow or pick the strawberries. In addition, they don’t control the environment on the strawberry farms, where growth is dependent on the influx of water, the fertility of the soil, and a temperature conducive to strawberry farming.
There seems to be an abundance of unnecessary guilt in industrialized countries. Those with much (material wealth) feel guilty that they’ve been fortunate (or blessed). Reminds me of a story: When I was a child my mother told me to clean my dinner plate because there were children starving in China. Okay. I ate the food, but I could not understand how my actions were helping the starving children of a faraway land. The reality is that there is much that we cannot do to alleviate the sufferings of others, like providing them with strawberries out of season. When actions are out of our control, there is no actual guilt, no reason to feel sorry, no reason to be negative.
We also cannot make amends to the people who suffered in previous generations. They’re gone. Although there’s nothing wrong about feeling sad for the conditions of their lives, no one can change the irreversible past. No one can go back, say, to antebellum America or ancient Rome and free a slave. No one in the present generation lived in colonial or antebellum America. Better to focus on those who are slaves today. Better to focus on those who are abused today. Better to focus on those who are starving today in some place where you can actually help.
Even when strawberries are in season, they aren’t universally distributed. Some places are not connected by efficient transportation systems capable of delivering the fruit while it’s fresh. Some people are not economically interested in distributing perishable fruit, and others are not interested in buying something with a short shelf life. Each geographic and social circumstance is different in some way. Also, there are some people who just don’t like strawberries.
If you think you owe someone an apology for not stocking the shelf with strawberries out of season, you are not facing the realities of your own limit of responsibility and your own ability to change the world. Of course, there will be others constantly pressuring you to feel guilty about those empty strawberry shelves. You don’t need to listen, and you don’t need to apologize.
RSS Feed