Today’s card makes me a bit sad. It’s generally a card I like in decks, but here there is such a sense of despair. The giver holds a scale with such small bowls that you wonder if she or he can fit even one coin in. Both the receivers are blindfolded so they can’t see what they are getting.And look at the mouths on all three. Turned down.
I wonder if any of them will get anything out of this exchange. The giver almost looks as if it is a duty or a chore that he’s been sent to do. The claw like hands of the receivers seem almost grasping.
Have you ever been on either side of an exchange like this? Where giving to the less fortunate felt like an obligation? Where receiving wasn’t satisfying?
How would this story change if the blindfolds came off and the scales went away. How would all the characters here react then? If the giver could give as it pleased him and not as it balanced the scale. If the receivers could receive with joy rather than sad expectation.
I’ve been on both sides. I know that for me I give better than I receive. It’s easier because our society teaches us to be self-reliant. We chastise and rail against the less fortunate. We mock those who are perceived as less than us.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Until you’ve been in the shoes of the person who only has ill-fitting pants and a dirty shirt and just enough money to buy the cheapest foods at Wal-Mart, only then can you understand that feeling of helplessness–of deadened resignation to your place in the world.
Have I been there? No, I haven’t, but I’ve been close. But I have seen the death of hope in someone else’s face. The understanding that they can’t get out of where they are because others keep them there.
Yes, there are shelters. Yes, there are programs. But until we as a world look at one another with love and understanding and acceptance, we diminish ourselves.
I’m no better than most. There are times I am disgusted by the homeless I see. I wonder why they aren’t letting someone else take care of them.
And I’m wrenched back to that thought…that thing we are all taught.
Don’t take handouts.
Do it yourself.
I wonder how much we’ve wounded ourselves by not including other teachings.
Ask for help when you need it.
Receive with gratitude so you can give with joy.
How would our world be different then?
Seek joy, y’all. Pass it on.
Don’t forget that May Tarotscopes are out.
6 of Coins, Efflorescent Tarot, Katie Rose Pipkin