Ladders & Pyramids

The news was bleak, especially for men.  Even as the rate of jobless goes down, the absolute numbers are still going up!  Each number is a personal portrait, often filled with injustice.  When someone gives an institution more than thirty years of their life, they have earned the right to be treated with respect.  As companies accepted personal sacrifices for their advantage in good times, it would seem reasonable that they could act with honesty when things were bad.  With their historical emphasis on integrity, in time of uncertainty, many companies appear to have become soulless ambivalent ghosts.
 
I find myself looking for examples of hope.  Institutions may hide behind an anonymous fa?ade, however they are made up individuals that make and execute decisions.  In one, a senior manager was doing what was right even as others hid behind a corporate shell.  He took the steps of addressing one act of injustice, even at the risk of his career.  His actions did not eliminate the pain, but it was a fair and compassionate response. 
 
For years, I, along with others, have accepted the scripted game.  Few could make it to the top.  One would win.  It was a world of battles, tactics, winners, and losers.  I see a new mantra emerging, eerily familiar to an old one.  People are taking care of people.  People are doing what is right, even when it hurts.  People are seeing each other as more than competitors and expendable resources.
 
The framework may seem unusual.  It is the same framework at the heart of Jesus’ message.  It was radical then as it is now.  When a Wisdom Father posted the question, “Don't we believe that we are saved because the Master Jesus amazingly and out of sheer generosity moved to save us just as he did those from beyond our nation?  So what are we arguing about?”  (Acts 15.11)  The question remains for us today.  We were never climbing ladders or fighting to be at the top of the pyramid.  We were and are part of an extended community.