Respect Matters

St Augustine  

Respect, responsibility, solidarity are THE WORDS of this pandemic for me.  They encapsulate the lessons I am learning about life in these extraordinary times.  

My experience of dealing with people and sharing life is that respect is the key building block of the three.  For how do you stand with others when you don't respect them or they not respect you?  For how do you fulfil your responsibilities when there is no respect given or received?  

The answer to both is you still must but something is lacking.  Without respect, the picture just will not come together.  What is failing in the picture without it?  Dignity for all.  The bottom line may be summed up as "how do I stand up for the rights of others, when I don't stand up for my own?" 

Being a person in the world is not being an actor.  Life is not simply a performance.  Life goes much deeper.  It has to, so that it has purpose and meaning.  Life is not purely functional.  It is not about being a nice, nor even a good person.  It is about much more.  At the core of all is who I am and who we are.  

I may respect others no matter what but the demand is also that I respect myself.  In respecting myself, I stand up for myself, not accepting a lack of respect from others.  This challenging better behaviour from others helps build a better world and needs no other justification than my own self-respect matters.  

By building up respect, we build up responsibility and solidarity.  Respect has two children: my respect for others and my respect for myself.  It is a two way street.  Respect matters.