Wise Words on Being Human

current day Inuit hunters

Good Morning, God!

My life seems full of marvelous quotes! Here is one from an old-time Inuit hunter as quoted in David Graeber’s book, Debt, the First 5,000 Years. “Up in our country we are human!”said the hunter. “And since we are human we help each other. We don’t like to hear anybody say thanks for that. What I get today you may get tomorrow.”

Sigh, that pierced my heart, God. It did. Part of me responded by saying “Give More!” But then I came to the second part of that quote: “Up here we say that by gifts one makes slaves and by whips one makes dogs.” So, as always, God, I come up against Simplicity and Complexity. I am not living in a Hunter / Gatherer Society. Things have changed. And things are changing faster and faster.

I am a big fan of technology, God. I don’t want to go back to a Hunter / Gatherer World. It was full of problems, too. But, how do we help one another? How do we all grow into being Helpers? Yes, not forgetting to help ourselves! I do that, God. And I keep forgetting that I am terrible about confessing my need for help — asking for it — seeing all the ways I need it.

How then to help? How to determine when a person really wants to be helped? Not as a Perpetual Taker — a horribly demeaning fate — but as a fully functioning human.

How, indeed. And can I be “one of them?” Seeking the help I need? Oh? All it takes is Humility? Sigh. Please, God, help me with that.

Story teller,

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Posted in a hand up, Caring, Choosing to respond, Compassion, humility

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