nate's notes

God’s Politics
- Jim Wallis, p33

“It was my mother’s admonitions that became the first building blocks for my emerging social conscience. Phyllis Wallis told her children to always do two things. First, if there is a child that nobody else will play with, you play with him or her, she ordered. It was like a rule of play for us – nobody gets left out. Second, if there is a bully who is picking on other people, you stand up for them, she courageously commanded. Virtually all my fights in school were with bullies.”

nate's thoughts: In the day and age of people raising their kids to be ahead of the curve, to be near or at the top of the class, to get ahead of life, there is an incredible homely resonance for me with this passage... the emphasis of others in an implicit acknowledgement of taking care of the wealth we have in the people we have around us, not in a charitable act of pity, but in a natural orientation of life... when I start to think along these lines, things make sense, life starts to make sense again for me, and becomes incredibly simple, significantly stress-less (I mean, what’s usually causing me stress? Usually material wants and needs!), and joyful, because I once again realise the riches I have are not what I own, but those around me