Civil rights are a beginning in the struggle toward justice. An overriding social theme during my lifetime (I was born in 1954) has been epic struggle against hypocrisy, and how that played out in the human and civil rights struggles of this age. For the first time, the United States began to take its stated commitment to “liberty and justice…
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Value for Wednesday of Week 03 in the season of Dormancy
Sharing
There is no justice without sharing, for justice is about more than the self.
- Fine sermons have been preached on the text that those who have should share with those who have not, but he who would act out this principle is speedily informed that these beautiful sentiments are all very well in poetry, but not in practice. “To lie is to degrade and besmirch oneself,” we say, and yet all civilized life becomes one huge lie. We accustom ourselves and our children to hypocrisy, to the practice of a double-faced morality. And since the brain is ill at ease among lies, we cheat ourselves with sophistry. Hypocrisy and sophistry become the second nature of the civilized man. But a society cannot live thus; it must return to truth or cease to exist. [Pyotr Kropotkin, The Conquest of Bread (1892), Chapter 1, “Our Riches”.]
- . . . if we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other . . . [Mother Teresa]
- There is nothing like a shared interest to draw people together. [E.A. Bucchianeri, Vocation of a Gadfly (Baltha Publishers, 2018).]
- When we share love, love multiplies. [attributed to Mihail Militaru]
When John Lennon imagined a future of “all the people sharing all the world“, he did not mean that some should work while others leeched off the fruits of their labors. Lennon accumulated wealth and lived very well. His vision means that we must all share the world’s resources, recognizing that each of us is here by the grace of birth and that the wealth we enjoy is a product of thousands of years of human innovation in which we played no role at all.
This conception of justice recognizes both the virtues and the limits of free enterprise. It demands social, political and legal rules that continually renew the opportunity to compete and thrive, while simultaneously rewarding work and innovation. It is a balance, which requires sound judgment and a kind spirit, not a dogma capable of rigid implementation.
Greed is a vice, not a virtue. Working hard and enjoying the fruits of our labors is a value but limits are necessary. An ethical life is not a Monopoly game, in which someone accumulates all the assets and leaves everyone else with nothing. How fair the rules may have seemed to be is not the ultimate test of justice; the consequences must be evaluated and continually re-evaluated. If people are left with nothing, they have no practical future opportunity and few means by which to succeed. Virtually by definition, prosperity must be shared, or it is not prosperity for most people. Such a state of affairs does not generate future prosperity but instead leaves most people struggling to survive. By such means do great nations decline, as appears to happen repeatedly in the United States.
A humane conception of justice recognizes these truths. The binding principle is that justice demands that the means of attainment must be adjusted continually to ensure that the opportunity to live well is broadly shared.
Real
True Narratives
- Winston P. Erickson, Sharing the Desert: The Tonoho O’odham in History (University of Arizona Press, 1994): “This book marks the culmination of fifteen years of collaboration between the University of Utah's American West Center and the Tohono O'oodham Nation's Education Department to collect documents and create curricular materials for use in their tribal school system.”
- Geneviève Rousselière, Sharing Freedom: Republicanism and Exclusion in Revolutionary France (Cambridge University Press, 2024), “presents the development of French republicanism from an older elitist theory of freedom into an inclusive theory of emancipation. Retracing the struggles of republicans during the French Revolution, it lays out the paradoxes that unwittingly led them to justify exclusions despite fervently embracing an expansion of freedom to all.”
- Elizabeth Ammons & Modhumita Roy, eds., Sharing the Earth: An International Environmental Justice Reader (University of Georgia Press, 2015): “. . . this anthology of eighty international primary literary texts—poems, short stories, personal essays, testimonials, activist statements, and group-authored visions—illuminates Environmental Justice as a concept and a movement worldwide . . .”
- Christopher Kelp & Mona Simion, Sharing Knowledge: A Functionalist Account of Assertion (Cambridge University Press, 2021): “. . . the etiological function of assertion is to generate knowledge in hearers. Kelp and Simion argue that this functionalist thesis has two important implications: a) that epistemically good assertions are those that are disposed to generate knowledge in hearers, and b) that epistemically permissible assertions are those that conform to the Knowledge Rule of Assertion (KRA). One important feature of the book is a sophisticated defense of KRA by means of an etiological-functionalist framework.”
Technical and Analytical Readings
Photographs
Documentary and Educational Films
Imaginary
Fictional Narratives
Novels and children's books:
- Ann Brashares, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants: A Novel (Delacorte Press, 2001): “The sisterhood of the title is formed when the girls, best friends since childhood, are about to be separated for the summer for the first time. On a shopping trip, they find a pair of thrift-store jeans that mysteriously flatters all of them, despite their different shapes and sizes. Deciding that the jeans must be magic, they make a pact to share them for the summer, each wearing them for a week and then mailing them to the next friend.”
- Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden: A Novel (1910) “With the help of the robin, Mary finds the door to a secret garden, neglected and hidden for years. When she decides to restore the garden in secret, the story becomes a charming journey into the places of the heart, where faith restores health, flowers refresh the spirit, and the magic of the garden, coming to life anew, brings health to Colin and happiness to Mary.”
- Shel Silverstein, The Giving Tree: A Children’s Book (1964): “. . . giving is good and important. And we should give what we can because it makes us happy to do so.”
- Markus Zusak, The Book Thief: A Novel (2005): in Nazi Germany, a young girl steals books, and shares them with an elderly man.
Children’s literature is replete with books about and encouraging sharing. Lists include those at:
From the dark side:
Two hostile troops on a field of battle are two wrestlers. It is a question of seizing the opponent round the waist. The one seeks to trip up the other. They clutch at everything: a bush is a point of support; an angle of the wall offers them a rest to the shoulder; for the lack of a hovel under whose cover they can draw up, a regiment yields its ground; an unevenness in the ground, a chance turn in the landscape, a cross-path encountered at the right moment, a grove, a ravine, can stay the heel of that colossus which is called an army, and prevent its retreat. He who quits the field is beaten; hence the necessity devolving on the responsible leader, of examining the most insignificant clump of trees, and of studying deeply the slightest relief in the ground. [Victor Hugo, Les Misérables (1862), Volume II – Cosette; Book First – Waterloo, Chapter IV, “A”.]
Poetry
From the dark side:
- Edgar Lee Masters, “Schroder the Fisherman”
Music: Composers, artists, and major works
Jazz at the Philharmonic: marvelous musicians, sharing the limelight, their egos mainly checked at the door. “Devised by record producer Norman Granz back in the 1940s, Jazz at the Philharmonic brought together mainstream jazz artists with the radical forces of bebop, and lead to the founding of the classic jazz record label, Verve. Beginning with ground-breaking multiracial tours of the USA, Granz was soon organising overseas tours under the JATP banner that brought the greatest jazz musicians of the day to concert venues around the world to perform spotlight sets and impromptu jam sessions.” The project continued for many years after that. Concerts include:
- Esquire All-American Jazz Concert, January 18, 1944 (118’);
- Charlie Parker 1949 Jazz at the Philharmonic (68’);
- The Complete Jazz at the Philharmonic on Verve, 1944-1949 (634’);
- Frankfurt, 1952 (47’);
- J.A.T.P. in Tokyo Live at the Nichigeki Theater 1953 (144’);
- J.A.T.P. Stockholm ’55 (50’);
- Jazz At The Philharmonic: Blues In Chicago 1955 (47’);
- Jazz at the Philharmonic Seattle 1956 - Set One (78’);
- BBC 1967 (95’);
- J.A.T.P. in London, 1969 (95’).
Camille Saint-Saëns, Cello Concerto No. 1 in A minor, Op. 33, R. 193 (1872) (approx. 20-23’) “makes effective, occasionally showy, use of the solo cello without ever degrading the part with empty virtuosity. It is a tightly knit work as well, written in three compact movements that connect without pause.” “Sir Donald Francis Tovey later wrote 'Here, for once, is a violoncello concerto in which the solo instrument displays every register without the slightest difficulty in penetrating the orchestra.' The orchestra clearly plays a role beyond that of mere accompaniment, 'as this work never succumbs to the imbalance frequently encountered in cello concertos whereby for long stretches the soloist is seen bowing furiously but is scarcely heard.'” Top recorded performances are by du Pré (Barenboim) in 1971, Isserlis (Tilson Thomas) in 1993, Walton (Briger) in 2000, Gabetta (Rasilajnen) in 2004, Moser (Bollon) in 2008, Schwabe (Soustrot) in 2017, Müller-Schott (Bloch) in 2021, and Philippe (Eschenbach) in 2023.
A piano trio is a small community, consisting of a pianist, a violinist and a cellist. Unlike a string quartet, where the first violinist usually takes the leading part, the piano trio form lends itself to a value such as equality. However, British sensibilities are too reserved for that. Piano trios from British composers more nearly evoke a more fundamental sense of sharing.
- In John Ireland’s piano trios, three gentle voices share good music: Piano Trio No. 1 in A Minor – Phantasie Trio (1909) (approx. 12-13’); Piano Trio No. 2 in E Major (1917) (approx. 13-15’); Piano Trio No. 3 in E Major (1938) (approx. 26-30’).
- Similarly in Arthur Foote’s piano trios:, Piano Trio No. 1 in C Minor, Op. 5 (1884) (approx. 32’); Piano Trio No. 2 in B-flat Major (1908) (approx. 21’).
- York Bowen, Piano Trio in E minor, Op. 118 (1900) (approx. 11’).
Albums:
- Billy Bang, “Bang On!” (1997) (62’): “Bang's trademark acerbic but animated style is peppered with the violinist's inner dialog.”
- Nomfusi, “The Red Stoep” (2021) (46’), “is steeped in Nomfusi’s traditional roots with stories of growing up in the township and childhood memories influenced by her single mother’s spirituality as a traditional healer.” The title refers to the veranda of a house, a gathering place and a place for sharing and community.
From the dark side:
- Das Rheingold (The Rheingold), WV 86A (1854) (approx. 140-148’), opens Richard Wagner’s ring cycle. The opera tells the story of the quest for the golden ring, a metaphor for striving, which is sullied by ambition and greed. Top performances were conducted by Krauss in 1953, Keilberth in 1955, Solti in 1958 and Rattle in 2015. Boulez, Fischer, Janowski and Schønwandt conducted video recordings.
Music: songs and other short pieces
- The Guess Who, “Share the Land” (lyrics)
- The Cribs, “We Share the Same Skies” (lyrics)
- Raffi, “The Sharing Song” (lyrics)
Visual Arts
- Vincent van Gogh, Man and Woman Sharing a Meal (1885)
- Claude Monet, Green Park in London (1871)
