This is a continuation of the discussion of Occupy Yourself: Doing Lent in an Unre-Lenting World, the 2012 Lenten Series at Christ Church Cathedral in Cincinnati.
The theme, Occupy Yourself, comes in the context of the recent Occupy Wall Street movement and the polarization between the 99% and the 1% in income distribution. Many ordinary Christians believe they are part of the 99% and would be ready to take the 1% to task.
In the process of self-reflection we would want to remember that those numbers are relative. In a wider world view, the 99% in the Occupy Wall Street perspective are actually 1%. Thus in self-reflection, it is imperative to ask oneself: “How do I relate to those around the world who do not even have clean water, let alone running water! How do I relate to those who live on less than $1 a day?”
Such self-examination would be helpful in appreciating what one has and being thankful.
Canon Joanna Leiserson gave the example of a survey where the question was: Would you prefer to earn $50,000 and everybody else $25,000 or $100,000 and everybody else $200,000? Surprisingly – or perhaps not so surprisingly – the preference for many was the first scenario.
Clearly, there is a cultural climate of competition which chokes the spirit of appreciation and thanksgiving. It is imperative therefore, that in self-examination we identify those things that we would be thankful for, everyday.
Ultimately, self-examination becomes “course-correction” the same way rockets enable a spacecraft stay on course and not drift into oblivion.
Even in the process of self-examination, it is possible to err, but that is alright. Canon Leiserson quoted from Goethe's Faust: “For man must strive and striving must err”. She added, in the process, “sometimes we find out that God's path for us is circuitous”.
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