The wisdom of being content with little

There was an unusual scene in one of the many moments that marked this year's carnival. When a famous singer, who was on an electric trio, saw a young man stealing the cell phone of a young woman unprepared. Microphone to her hand, she promptly rebuked the young man saying, "Do not do that. I also came from where you came from. Me and the singers... [and declined their names] we came from the same place, but we have never taken what is from others. When you have few resources you have to work, work hard, but never steal."

Except for the intervention of the singer, the episode she witnessed is unfortunately a common scene in the large and medium-sized cities of our country. And in many cases, accompanied by acts of violence and brutality, as the media showed on the occasion of the last carnival, in which several victims were not only robbed, but also lost their lives.

Chemical dependence is, as no one else knows, closely related to facts of this magnitude. The compulsion for drugs leads the individual to discard what he has and, at this point, to appropriate what belongs to others, inside or outside home.

Of course, assault, robbery, thievery, violence and corruption cannot be explained simply by the need to get high. There is something much deeper in these ills, which first highlights the condition of inferiority that characterizes the world in which we live, and second, absolute ignorance about the purpose of life.

Referring to the theme of impermanence and transience of the goods we have throughout life, Lacordaire (Spirit) wrote:

"Be pleased with little. If you are poor, do not envy the rich, for wealth is not necessary to happiness. If you are rich, do not forget that your possessions are only entrusted to you and that you have to justify the employment you give them, as if you were responsible for a guardianship.

Do not be unfaithful depository, using them solely for the sake of your pride and your sensuality.

Do not judge with the right to dispose in your exclusive benefit of what you received, not by donation, but simply as a loan.

If you do not know how to repay, you have no right to ask, and remember that he who gives to the poor, repays the debt that he has contracted with God." (The Gospel According to Spiritism, chapter XVI, item 14.)

Great value has lessons such as this established by the respected educator, academic and religious French.

Before criticizing or belittling them, let us remember that they come from people who have come here, who lived in the environment in which we find ourselves, but gather information, perceptions and experiences that only the disincarnated hold, as someone who stands high of the mountain, while we struggle in the plain, ignoring the reasons that lead us to face the trials, the needs, the difficulties and the challenges of life.