When You Have More Than You Need

I saw this on Facebook, and thought it nicely addressed a common human instinct. When any of us rises above the general situation of poverty that characterizes human existence, our instinct is to protect that status, not to make sure the path is clear for others to get where we are. We must resist that instinct. We do not have some inherent right to be wealthier – not because of birth, nationality, or even hard work, since many work harder than we do and yet do not escape their poverty. The only appropriate response is thus to ask how we can get more people to benefit from the privileges that we do.

Or as the image puts it so much more memorably and succinctly, “when you have more than you need, build a longer table not a higher fence.”