Share Nicely!
THE SCHOOL YEAR begins and a fresh cohort of 5-year-olds set off in new uniforms. As a proud grandparent, my experience of little ones grappling with basic life skills is recent. Some skills, like walking, they tackled with alacrity and great tenacity. Other behaviours, like learning to share, came harder. Someone sharing their sweets with them was easy. Telling someone else how to share was OK. But sharing something of theirs with another – well that took longer! Exhortations to ‘Share nicely’ often went unheeded, as the instinct to protect their own interests overtook the needs and feelings of others. ‘Sharing nicely’ sounds a child-like expression. Yet, as we grow up, I hope we learn that sharing sits at the heart of a fulfilled adult life. That generosity of heart to give and receive, which begins with sweets and toys, can become our superpower.
Generous sharing can be seen at the heart of solutions to our challenges in communal life. Proposals to redesign the ‘Last Crumb’ junction come down to whether motorists can offer longer journey times in exchange for improved pedestrian safety. When education, healthcare and national security (to name a few) are manifestly in need of extra funding, how do we agree on some people contributing more, in order that all can have the basic benefits of a civil society? Or how do the developed nations reduce their carbon emissions in order that the whole world does not overheat?
There are no easy answers, though I find wisdom in scripture that speaks to the unchanging character of human nature. From my own Judeo-Christian tradition, the laws which God gave to the Israelites in the Old Testament were essentially a charter for sharing, so everyone had enough and no-one got too much. Those rules were hard: farmers told to leave some of the harvest at the edges of fields deliberately, for poor people to collect (Leviticus Chapter 23); also a radical reset of land ownership every 50 years (Leviticus Chapter 25). Later in the New Testament, John the Baptist said, “Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise” (Luke Chapter 3). Other faiths offer similarly uncompromising advice.
What I think my grandchildren have learned is that sharing is risky. When you share what is yours, you may get everything back and more; you may get nothing! But I hope they also learn that if you don’t share at all, everyone is worse off.
Rev’d Kevin Lovell, Vicar of St Barnabas,
Emmer Green and Caversham Park
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