Smile on Your Brother

We often quote a famous line written by the English poet John Donne: “No man is an island.” It reminds us that we all need each other and are not fully sufficient on our own. The Bible confirms that we were all created to live in community with others. Even though we have different personalities and inclinations, we were designed to need others and to be better together. Which also means that what we do affects others. We cannot live as if we alone are all that matters. But welcome to the 21^st century.

A firsthand story: My husband just spent the last week at home fulfilling a mandated furlough without pay for all employees at his business in an effort for the company to save some much-needed money and hopefully recover from a very difficult couple of years. This action of the company was precipitated by a lengthy strike by 33,000 of its union employees who have been expecting unrealistic demands to be met before they will return to work and help the company survive. Through no fault of his own, my husband lost 25% of his salary this month while faithfully fulfilling the duties of his management position. The actions of other people affected him and everyone else still willing to work at his company on a daily basis.

Selfishness seems to fuel so much of our society. The company leaders have made selfish decisions and serious financial mistakes in the past leading up to where we are today. The striking workers have been told repeatedly by the union leadership that they have to fight to get what they deserve; and they have been convinced that this is “their time” despite the fact that the company is working hard just to stay afloat. And the union leadership has not even been willing to bring previous offers to the strikers for a vote. Everyone seems to be thinking about themselves and forgetting that we’re all in this together. But what we do affects others. And now the latest news from the company is an upcoming ten percent reduction in the overall workforce that will soon affect everyone company-wide. It seems that when everyone looks out for number one, no one really wins.  

I keep hearing a song from my childhood playing in my head:

Come on, people now
Smile on your brother
Everybody get together
Try to love one another right now.

I guess not much has changed since Chester Powers wrote these words in 1963 and The Youngbloods made them famous in 1967. Humans are self-centered and have to be reminded to work together. And natural loners like myself have to work even harder at this. But we can all do better, and we need to. Now, more than ever.