Bounty in the Eyes of the Beholder

Of course, the world is bountiful, “America the Beautiful” and all those waves of grain and fruited plains. I live in a comfortable house, my mortgage is paid, two cars in the garage, warm in the winter, cool in the summer. Water always flows from my taps, there’s plenty of food in my pantry, fridge, and freezer. My income is more than sufficient to cover my expenses, I have insurance and access to excellent medical care. My three children survived infancy and are all successful adults, grandchildren are all healthy, schools are good. I have never lived in a war zone (though local school board meetings did get a bit volatile over the mask mandate). Of course, the world is bountiful…from my privileged, bountiful position.

I can’t ignore the disturbing fact that for millions of people, bountiful is not a word that describes their worldview. How do we reconcile the reality of those with flagrantly too much wealth and those with not nearly enough? How can we process a cash offer of $43 billion to purchase Twitter when millions are homeless, hungry, barely surviving in abject poverty. What has removed the humanity from humanity, the Golden Rule from our collective minds, the commitment to equity, not as an ideal, but a human right? When did we shift our focus from “we” to “me”? How can we accept, even admire, the selfish, narcissistic greed of those living in mega-bounty who rob the bounty from multitudes of others? I grieve and God weeps. Is this bounty?

By virtue of birth, I enjoy bounty; Joyce, my Kenyan “sister” is not as fortunate. Joyce lives in a mud house in a sprawling Nairobi slum. At 68, she must work in order to support her grandson, whose mother died from non-COVID pneumonia in the overcrowded, substandard government hospital. Joyce stands 8 hours a day in constant pain because she can’t afford physical therapy, surgery, or the time off. She’ll take a leave of absence from her job to search for a school for her grandson; she may or may not find a place in one. If he is lucky enough to find a place, the quality of education will undoubtedly be low. He’ll need tuition, school books, school uniforms and after (if) he passes the national exam upon completion, it’s unlikely he’ll find a job. Water is being rationed and the price of everything is skyrocketing. They eat ugali (a dense cornmeal porridge) and collard greens every evening. Though Joyce has an amazing faith in God, her world is not bountiful.

Across the globe, millions are mired in unspeakable poverty. Problems like hunger, malnutrition, infant mortality, drought, disease, filthy water, lack of medical care are endemic; all of these could be eliminated if the wealth was shared in an equitable way, if we cared for the least of these, for the other. $43 billion (are you listening…or caring, Mr. Musk?), along with other fortunes of the rich and famous, could build enough simple, affordable housing for those living in makeshift shacks or on the street. War, waged for power and greed, continues to devastate regions of the world. In Ukraine, the physical destruction of property and land has been unimaginable and the land is currently littered with unexploded ordnance. Even more horrific are the deaths of civilians, the torture, the trauma, the fleeing from the homeland into homelessness. The breadbasket of the world, will the fields get planted and harvested? What will be the impact on world hunger and poverty? Even after the war is over, it will take decades to rebuild homes, buildings, factories, hospitals, schools, and society. Is this bounty?

As humans, we are destroying the bounty of the world. We mine and burn coal, damaging the earth and the air; our need for oil is ever-increasing and oil spills cause irreversible damage. Cites have an insatiable appetite for more water, more land and lumber for homes and factories- more, more, more as wildfires rampantly destroy what has been built on the decimated land. Our “need” for meat depletes a huge amount of natural resources at an alarming rate. In 2006, Al Gore’s documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, warned of global warming, yet we are still rushing ahead to the tipping point of no return. Is this bounty?

Is the world bountiful? It all depends on where you are and where you’re looking.

— cmshingle