Bird Droppings January 10, 2025
Caregiving and or being cared for, we need both?
“To care and be cared for are fundamental human needs. We all need to be cared for by other human beings. In infancy, illness, or old age, the need is urgent and pervasive; we need caregiving, and we need the special attitude of caring that accompanies the best caregiving if we are to survive and remain whole.” Nel Noddings
On Monday, January 20th, we honor a man with a day dedicated to his memory who cared deeply about humanity. As I sit here pondering the true aspects of caring and the impacts on the human condition, Dr. Nel Noddings discusses how we need to care and we also need to be cared for, both sides of the coin. It is not an either-or situation. On the news the other day, volunteers prepared a meal for twenty thousand homeless and working poor in Atlanta in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., with the Hosea Williams Foundation sponsoring the event. Hosea Williams was a man who walked with Dr. King back in the day and a man who started a Feed the Hungry program in Atlanta. In that same news cycle, two news commentators had been criticized for making violent comments regarding other people. One referred to shooting the founder of Wiki leaks in the head, and the other, in a panel discussion, addressed reinvading Iraq for oil to keep the prices down.
“If every eight in the world is taught meditation, we will eliminate violence within one t generation.” The Dalai Lama
Caring is not seeking war for oil, especially so that major oil companies can further profit. The countries where the oil is located do indeed reap fortunes from the pumping of oil, but outside of Venezuela, most oil is pumped, shipped, piped, and processed by a select few large oil companies who have continually made significant profits while all other industries are losing money. Interestingly, Iraq’s oil is now being pumped by mostly US companies that are making money. Another aspect left by the wayside when we pick on a country about oil prices is Wall Street, where oil is a traded commodity. US investors are driving the price up or down depending on their profitability, not our needs. Investors, not countries, own most oil. Why do we not invade Wall Street and the stock exchange and stop auctioning commodities and dealing in the so often bogus paper of the stock market? This is not about caring other than for oneself.
I listened on Tuesday to the speech on I Had a Dream. I am amused on this day as I recall my father, a former Navy man and a diehard Republican, who always voted straight Republican on his ballot, telling me this was one of the greatest speeches he had ever heard. My father made his living with his booming voice and addressed audiences across the globe. He had sat and listened to many of the greatest speakers of the twentieth century in various capacities. My father had lectured and had his message translated into nine or ten languages in nearly forty different countries. I felt for him that saying this very liberal southern pastor and black man had just delivered the most powerful speech of the modern day was very significant. But I also always knew my father was a caring man about his family, friends, his life’s work, and all those he dealt with around the world.
I was only in eighth grade or so when Dr. King delivered his now-famous speech at the Lincoln Memorial in 1963. Now, we honor the man with a holiday. Many will protest and have arguments that this day should not be a national holiday. I am not one of those. As I read the words and listened to the message in this powerful speech, I realized that it is not about racism. It is about humanity; it is about caring. In the past presidential campaign, Dr. King was both talked about and commented on. Barrack Obama, on a Sunday at Ebenezer Baptist Church, after being lectured by the Pastor that many other great men had spoken at this pulpit, had these words to say.
“If Dr. King could love his jailor, if he could call the faithful who once sat where you do to forgive those who set dogs and fire hoses upon them, then surely, we can look past what divides us in our time,” Barrack Obama, January 20, 2008, Ebenezer Baptist Church.
I watch daily high school kids who still hold racism deep in their hearts. I read passages on students’ and adults’ websites that talk of hatred and misunderstanding. I have been in meetings with parents where comments such as “they work too hard, and I cannot get a job” regarding Hispanic construction workers. Racism is still in our society and our communities. How do we, as human beings, look forward to a week on a day dedicated to a man who, in his lifetime, tried to end racism, approach, and channel such bigotry and hatred? I wonder, as I sit here with school tomorrow, how far we have come yet still have so far to go.
“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” I have a dream that one day, on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of formerly enslaved people and the sons of former enslavers will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day, even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today!” Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Washington DC, August 23, 1963
Oh, what a day it will be when our character and not skin color judge us. I have a dream as well, borrowing from Dr. Noddings again: ” We need the special attitude of caring that accompanies the best caregiving if we are to survive and remain whole.” As I sit and ponder the Dalai Lama’s thought above, what if we taught meditation to eight-year-olds? So, my friends, please keep all in harm’s way on your mind and in your hearts, and always give thanks. namaste.
My family and friends, I do not say this lightly,
Mitakuye Oyasin
(We are all related)
bird
The daily meanderings of a teacher 