Delphic Maxim 45: Give what you have
I’ve set myself the challenge of responding to each Delphic Maxim for 15 minutes a day.
45. Give what you have
At first I read this and my thoughts went instantly to the NSW state election tomorrow. I’ll be handing out how-to-vote cards on the Central Coast for my friend Jeff, who has been running a campaign in a safe conservative seat. It’s rough, because at elections this close, political parties need to focus their efforts and resources on winnable (marginal) seats — it’s just the way the calculus of politics works. In Jeff’s electorate (where I grew up for the first 30 years of my life), it’s hard to get volunteers to campaign — particularly because there’s a competitive seat right next door.
How does this relate to today’s maxim? Well, Jeff has spent years and years giving energy and effort tirelessly to his community. I’ve seen and worked with a lot of politicians in my life, and one thing that most of them have in common is that they give so much of their time, and energy, and privacy, and lives to their community. That doesn’t mean I necessarily agree with them: I see politicians on both ends of the political spectrum who give what they have, but that’s still a separate issue to the values, policy and ideological positions politicians take. (In short, it’s not enough that someone is engaged with the community: that’s kind of a bare minimum for politics. A politician needs to have values that either align with their community, or be persuasive enough as a leader to bring people around to an alternative vision).
We live in a time where trust in politicians is as low as it has ever been. Our trust of democratic institutions, of government, of the political process is hugely degraded by the selfish, senseless, heavily partisan approach of some politicians (those who, having been given the honour of representing a community, fall back on rigid, inflexible ideological thinking, that doesn’t connect to the lived experience of the people they were elected to represent). But there’s still something to learn from good politicians, and that’s the notion that giving what you have — in whatever sense you take that to mean — is both ennobling for the self, and enriching for the life of the community.
Politicians aren’t the only group that can be used as an example here, nor are they necessarily the best group (they’re just the first that comes to mind because there’s an election tomorrow). I have friends who donate vast amounts of time to important charities and causes, who campaign to do something about climate change; who work tirelessly to help people who don’t have a home to go to, or people who sleep rough without a meal; who give money to help people they’ll never meet in far flung places on the earth; or who simply look out for their friends, family and neighbours. The life of each of us is bound up in the life of the community, and engagement with the community is better for us than the idea that we can only function as self-sufficient individuals.
Nobody exists as an individual. We depend on our networks of people to learn language, to support us when we are in need, to enrich our lives and relationships. Human life is a communal enterprise — our roads, hospitals, schools and cities are a testament to exactly that. So I like this maxim. It isn’t “give all that you have”, but a simple call to give.
Tomorrow, give your time to vote, because having your say in our democracy — however disillusioned you may be with it — is a fundamental way that we give for the civic good.
And if you live in the electorate of Terrigal, vote for my friend Jeff.
