Remember Importance Of Dignity

Today’s offering begins with some comic-strip wisdom, this time from “Blondie.”

Dagwood tries to be firm with Mr. Dithers: “You don’t pay me what I think I’m worth.”

Jumping from his desk chair, Mr. Dithers fires back, “You’re lucky I don’t pay you what I think you’re worth!”

As Dagwood leaves, a co-worker asks, “Did you get the raise?”

Smiling, Dagwood responds, “Are you kidding? I’m already way ahead of the game!!”

I don’t like put-down humor. Clever, sometimes. Funny, never to me. I winced when reading Dagwood because his “everyman” put-down was so real.

Dagwood’s sense of worth seems not his own but determined by Mr. Dithers’ opinion. So often we take our own dignity-temperature but let others else read it for us. Too often wrongly.

Now, let’s take another glance at the newspaper.

In one day’s edition I came across real people in real situations. Look for the common thread connecting them: Israeli-Palestinian peace talks at Camp David; Washington state Republicans and the tribal sovereignty controversy; the question of whether the City Council invocation should be “Christian” or more generic; a quadriplegic who embarks on a new career as a cartoonist.

The one common thread in all of these stories spells out D-I-G-N-I-T-Y. A fragile thread it is, since most of these stories involve some kind of fight for D-I-G-N-I-T-Y.

But look closely, or you’ll miss it.

At first glance, the first three stories seem to scream about some kind of human rights. The fourth story, about Bob Shill, doesn’t talk about rights of any kind. It simply reflects a positive struggle for dignity.

His cartoon strip is about a master gardener, Hank Mulch. It isn’t by accident that Mulch is in a wheelchair. Not surprisingly, there is a good bit of “wheelchair humor” in the strip.

Shill’s goal is really to “break down barriers and help people feel comfortable around people in wheelchairs. … My ultimate goal is to make the wheelchair disappear in the reader’s eyes.”

Bob Shill is a man fighting for human dignity. I’m sure he would be very happy if human rights were honored in the process.

I have a question here, folks: Do people fight more for “rights” when they sense their “dignity” has been compromised? I think so.

There is no question that human rights of all kinds need to be protected. But dignity, basic human worth, is so often a forgotten casualty of the fight.

It’s what should be protected in the first place. Without human dignity as the foundation, human rights struggles exist on quicksand.

These struggles too easily become political and religious free-for-alls that prove not who is right but sadly only who is left after the quicksand claims its victim.

You may remember that I have been involved in an annual church-sponsored retreat for persons living with AIDS. One of the important dignity reminders we use at the retreat is a powerful song called “Child of God.’ The chorus goes like this:

“I am a child of God, nothing can shake my confidence.

“I am a child of God, no one can take my inheritance.

“Never alone, I’ll stand, strengthened by God’s own hand,

“I am a child, I am a child, a child of God.”

The composer is a friend of mine. He’s a man who, at times in his life, wondered whether he had worth as a person. All of us wonder that for our private and occasionally public reasons.

I’m so glad my friend introduced this song to me. It has been a musical reminder to me on more than one occasion of this: In spite of how I may “feel” about myself, I do have ultimate worth to the God who creates me, sustains me, and empowers me to live the best way I know.

When you get steamed up about “rights” for yourself, try to ask yourself a question like this: If my sense of dignity was rock solid, would these rights be as important to me as they seem to be?

If your answer is “yes,” then a fight for rights is probably well-grounded. There are many rights fights that need to be joined for the reason of upholding personal dignity - yours or another person’s.

If your answer is “no,” perhaps it’s time to continue your inner search for the God who gave you D-I-G-N-I-T-Y in the first place. You may have simply misplaced it.

Look for it. I know in your search you’ll stumble onto it.

You are a child of God!