75.The Best and the Worst

From the halls of government to the streets of Portland, Covid and Christmas have teamed to bring out the best and the worst in us. In a word, the best is selfless giving—and the worst is selfishness. You might have other definitions, but this one seems clear to me today. 

On Christmas Eve my granddaughter’s car was stolen. She had her hard had and work boots, rain gear, and hundreds of dollars of Christmas presents in it, had made a brief, 45 minute stop at a salon, and came out to find it gone. She did all the right things: called the police; contacted insurance; posted photos, license number, time and place, and police case number on Facebook. It’s now almost 30 hours, and no word on any of it. 

 

The perpetrators of this heist are selfish; they lack empathy; they see the Christmas gifts—maybe even the boots and hardhats—and the money they can make stripping and selling Honda parts as more important to them than the car and its contents are to my granddaughter.  

 

It’s not unlike the current squabbles in government. Legislators and administration officials have spent months crafting a bill that will offer economic relief and speed Covid-vaccination programs across the country. The best impulses have been aimed at the plight of millions of Americans out of work, food, and housing. The worst have considered the negotiations and bill’s passage as how they will make me and my team look. To hell with your Christmas presents—and rent payments; I’ll take mine. 

 

Meanwhile, millions of people across the country are working long shifts in Covid wards, manning food banks, delivering meals on wheels, ringing Salvation Army bells, and in one way and another playing St. Nicholas in a harsh world in troubled times. Some of those legislators are missing meals and gnashing teeth.

 

This cuts past Christmas and religion. There are nominal Buddhists, Moslems, Hindus and atheists on both sides of this world of “self” and “other,” “mine” and empathy. There are atheists in foxholes—and Moslems, Christians, etc. But when military psychologists wondered why some fought harder and longer, they found that your buddy in the foxhole—selflessness, empathy—is more important than religion and all the evils that can be painted on the enemy. 

 

There are other crimes—e.g., of revenge, neglect, anger, and passion—but the crime of selfishness transcends class, politics, wealth and religion. And in the narcissistic car thief and political showman’s eyes is no crime at all.

 

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