When I first talked to our friend Rachael about our journey a few months ago, she described it as a “sacrificial” action. Rather an interesting choice of words, I thought. “Sacrifice” these days tends to have unfortunate connotations of ostentatious self-deprivation, or empty ritual.
Rachael though, is a radical christian, a member of the Iona Community, and the word sacrificial reminds me of the time a few years ago when she chose to mark Lent by living on the minimum wage. Of course that’s a very far cry from the situation of someone who is permanently on a minimum wage, but it did seem a worthwhile practice to me. Why do something like that? As I see it (and she might have different reasons) such a practice might:
- help one develop compassion
- be an act of solidarity with the poor
- be an act of practical redistribution — if you give away the money saved
- be a deliberate act of disconnection from the unhealthy drives of consumerism
If it’s undertaken with mindful engagement, this kind of action can be a very fruitful exercise, far from an empty ritual.
In it’s root meaning “sacrifice” is les to do with deprivation than with making something sacred. [I’m aware that Albert will be reading this, and will be bristling at such words. What I mean, Albert, is something to do with ensuring that our actions are congruent with our ethical principles, that the means are fitted to the ends — which I hope you will recognise as a central aspect of nonviolence. If not, skip the rest of this post and hope that I get round to discussion of railway gauges in the Peleponnese soon…]
So how does our trip fit with all this? In one sense, it’s not a sacrificial act at all — we have spent rather more money than we can really afford, for a pleasure jaunt which involves quite a lot of lounging on beaches and ice cream eating 🙂
To be continued…
Gordon & Martha // Jul 25, 2009 at 1:54 pm
Don’t understand why the trip should be seen as a sacrificial action — apart that is from the monetary cost!
It’s costing us a lot in terms of hard work to pick all the redcurrants and other produce from the allotment. No sign BTW of the promised helper!
Gordon & Martha // Aug 1, 2009 at 2:03 pm
Thanks to a beneficent Jupiter Pluvius, the allotment is being regularly watered every day. All the redcurrants are now made into jelly, yum, yum.