Maggie's bike was stolen from our driveway last night. Let me tell you, she was violated. She and I spent about an hour last night driving around in a futile after-dark attempt at finding it. This morning, while Megan went up to Maggie's school to help with Christmas program rehearsal, Lennon and I spent another hour-plus searching the square mile around our house for signs of the bike. It turns out there are a LOT of bikes in that square mile.
Maggie couldn't sleep last night; she came out of her room crying, saying she "just wanted her bike." You know, it was such a challenge and a victory for her to learn to ride that thing, and whoever has taken this little girl's bike has no appreciation for her struggle.
To make her, and me, feel better I asked her to assume that some dad out there who isn't lucky enough to have a job like me, but loves his daughter just as much, wanted that little girl to have a bike for Christmas so much--and he was so desperate to make her happy--that he took Maggie's bike for his little girl. It wasn't to be mean, he just didn't know what else to do; little girls' happiness means that much to their daddies. So we're trying not to think of it as a crime, but as the symptom of a bigger world crime, where people are made desperate by our culture.
That's the need scenario.
But it also got me thinking about the greed scenario.
I think need and greed can consort to account for about all of the hurt in the world. People either greedily take things from others, or need things that others won't share; so, people war with each other. On large and small scales people are either hoarding or trying to survive. Greed and need.
Now, religious wars are a different ball of wax, I suppose. Even so, though, I think factions may be warring over a greed for righteousness, or a need to be left alone to explore God. Greed and need.
So, someone was either in great (hopefully ethically challenging) need of a bicycle, or greedy for their own selfish (probably fleeting) gain. In any case, I need to figure out how to get a bike up on the roof for Christmas morning.
Not to challenge your approach/addressing the issue w/ Maggie, nor to negate your thoughts on greed/need, but my experience w/ this sort of thing through most of my life has been that much of the time it's simply kids being idiots, and not giving a rip about others or the impact of their actions. Boredom, frustration, adrenaline addiction, whatever... I hope this can become a learning experience for her in detaching her self-definition, pride in her accomplishments, etc. to a physical thing that can be taken/rust/etc., though clearly it still sucks to push a child into that this way.
ReplyDeleteThat all makes sense. I would classify those situations under "greed" which is always selfish. Boredom, frustration, adrenaline addiction etc. are all selfish motivations for such an action.
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