The Book of Joy

profound complementarity. It is the nature of things. You don’t have to
be a believer in anything. I mean I could not speak as I am speaking
without having learned it from other human beings. I could not walk as a
human being. I could not think as a human being, except through learning
it from other human beings. I learned to be a human being from other
human beings. We belong in this delicate network. It is actually quite
profound.
“Unfortunately, in our world we tend to be blind to our connection
until times of great disaster. We find we start caring about people in
Timbuktu, whom we’ve never met and we’re probably never going to
meet this side of death. And yet we pour out our hearts. We give
resources to help them because we realize that we are bound up together.
We are bound up and can be human only together.”
I was deeply moved by what the Archbishop was saying, yet I could
hear the skepticism that some readers would have, that I had had. Most
people do not walk around thinking about how they can help others.
Whether we like it or not, most people are waking up in the morning
wondering how they are going to manage to do their job, make enough
money to pay the bills, and take care of their families and other
responsibilities. “Nice guys finish last” is a phrase that speaks to our deep
ambivalence about kindness and compassion in the West. Success in our
society is measured by money, power, fame, and influence.
These men had all of these except the first, but neither would go
hungry. For spiritual leaders, ignoring money was fine, but what about for
those who lived and died in the almighty marketplace? Most people are
not aspiring to spiritual greatness or enlightenment but to pay for their
children’s education and make it through retirement without running out
of money. I chuckled at the memory of visiting the house of some friends
outside of Las Vegas. It was a beautiful home, actually more like a
Persian estate, with multiple buildings with fountains and flowing
channels of water. It was reminiscent of the great structures of Islamic
civilization. I was there for a discussion of the Archbishop’s legacy, and
when he arrived and witnessed the beauty and grandeur of the place, he
had smiled and said cheekily, “I was wrong—I do want to be rich.”