Dignity

Last night, the wind blew some tiles off the roof. I always wake up when one of them crashes and shatters. And I realized why the gambling house always wins; why Obama will ultimately be regarded as America’s savior. Why? Because he, perhaps more than any other man, has brought us face to face with our own mortality.

Saw “Import/Export” last night - a German film by Ulrich Seidl. It’s the kind of film best seen locked on fast-forward. As far as films go, there was something fundamentally wrong with it. It traced the lives of two young people from different parts of Europe - a man and a woman - struggling to survive. It was winter and the prospects for both looked pretty bleak. So much of what most of us take for granted, they didn’t have, like running water for instance.

The girl ends up in Germany which is only marginally better for her since she bears the legacy of communism and all its implications. The boy, Austrian, ends up working for his father in what was once referred to as 'die Ost-Zone'. Their lives never intersect.

Wisdom, knowledge, religion, grace, talent, skill - all are like mental jewelry. Any one of these takes years to nurture and develop. If conditions are right, they can mature into something far more precious than material wealth. We, here in America, have a better than even chance at all of it. There are people in other countries who don’t. In the past, they’ve looked west for a chance to earn what passes for human dignity. Some fall short, of course. They bring too much baggage along with them.

I look at my own children. They are adults now. Having made no serious mistakes to weigh them down, they are thriving as much as can be expected under current circumstances. But more than any of that, it is dignity that props them up. Dignity is the foundation of any successful endeavor. Without it, we remain stunted.

In the past few days, I’ve heard Wisconsin compared to Egypt. The people who say this have no clue. Our revolution (if you want to call it that) has nothing in common with what Egyptians are fighting for. Our grievance is a mere temper tantrum compared to theirs. Whereas we can go back to our homes and eat a good dinner after a day of marching and waving banners with pictures of Hitler and Che; they have nothing to come home to but begging, hoping that their bloodlust (which often masquerades as salvation) will sustain them another day.

Our tradition of individual dignity is at peril. It’s the only thing that’s held our noses above water for so many years. Obama has shown us that dignity’s fabric has frayed; that it may tear under stress if not properly repaired and maintained; that we may find ourselves chilled to the bone and huddling together like farm animals in a draughty barn; that the path downward is infinite, and that we have only just begun our descent.

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