The German Grundrecht, the law, begins with the sentence ‘The Dignity of a people is untouchable.’ Kind of ironic when we look at the harm Germany is causing in Gaza, the harm they have caused in the Rwandan Genocide, the unspeakable harm they have caused to Jewish people during the Holocaust… I mean. The list is long.
I’ve been thinking about this concept of Dignity. Despite their grave failings in the political landscape, Germans have this phrase in day to day life. ‘Man macht das nicht.’ This is just not what one does. It’s like a memo. We don’t litter. Someone will have to pick that up and they don’t deserve that. We don’t put our feet on the bus seat, someone else will have to sit there. They don’t deserve that. We say hello to strangers, they deserve the acknowledgement.
There is such an emphasis on recognising shared humanity and the consequences of our actions. I’ve missed that a bit over here. The zero sum game is well alive.
I see so many people thinking they’re winning when they’re getting away with injustice. It’s like they don’t see that you can’t trick what’s right. When we deny the Dignity of someone else, we always also deny our own. When we cheat, there’s never a true win. When we take what isn’t ours, there isn’t more abundance, there’s more affirmation of scarcity.
In the past, my number one strategy to protect my vulnerability would have been to let go of my own Dignity. There would have been completely unrelated heaps and heaps self-loathing in the face of injustice. There would have been silent shame, reassuring me that I didn’t deserve better.
Now I know that that’s too high a cost. I don’t have to hide painful truths any more, I can bare witness because I respect myself and all involved enough.
Because when we let someone know that their actions aren’t right, when we have difficult conversations, and when we stand up for what is right, we give them a chance to remember their own Dignity.
Maybe that’s a valuable prayer for these times. That we all take a little time to remember each other’s dignity today.
Grá mór x
Patricia
#musings