it’s one of the seven virtues of
Christianity it used to have a central
place in Roman ethics and Judaism as
well today we remain deeply impressed by
the idea of charity but often from a
distance without probing the concept too
deeply with little attempt to practice
it systematically it’s something we
might have recourse to when we’re moved
by a documentary on TV or have some
loose change left over after the
holidays at its most basic charity means
giving someone something they need but
can’t get for themselves and normally
that’s understood to mean something
material we overwhelmingly associate
charity with giving money the heroes of
Christianity are exemplars of just such
charity outside the city st. Francis
comes across a poor man his garments are
thin and ragged winter is coming on and
coats are expensive the saint is moved
to charity but at its core charity goes
far beyond finance it’s about
recognizing that a person needs help
with something that they can’t do for
themselves and that their helplessness
is not a sign of wickedness or sin but
is part of the human condition we freely
give because we appreciate how often we
wouldn’t have made it if other people
had not at key points in different
contexts cut us some slack it’s in
relationships that charity becomes
particularly necessary here we don’t
generally require the charity of money
cloaks and free meals what we are short
of is charity of interpretation that is
a charitable perspective on our
weaknesses eccentricities anxieties and
follies failings that we’re unable to
explain or win sympathy for that we
merely act out with immaturity and hurt
it might be the one person in a couple
has badly messed up in their
professional life
they made a significant decision at work
that played out badly they got severely
criticized there was talk of court
action for months they were agitated and
hard to live with they couldn’t
articulate their fears they were sullen
and irascible their partner might have
added stern admonitions to those of the
regulator the senior management and
people on Twitter they could have
concluded that their partner was inept
Reidy maybe a bit unprincipled but
instead a charitable soul does the work
the partner has not been able to do they
do the explaining for them they
understand enough about their past to
have a picture of where their impatience
and over ambition come from they hold in
mind what happened with their parents
and with a move to another country and
with a brother who died too young they
lend a picture of who the beggar is that
is sufficiently generous and complex as
to make them more than just the fool or
the weirdo they could so easily have
been dismissed as the genuinely
charitable person gives generously from
a sense that they to stand in need of
charity not right now not over this
necessarily but in some other area they
know that self-righteousness is merely
the result of a faulty memory an
inability to hold in mind at moments
when one is totally right how often
one’s been deeply and definitively in
the wrong in other contexts charity
remembers how there might still be
goodness amidst a lot of evil charity
keeps in mind that if someone is tired
and stressed they are liable to behave
appallingly charity is aware that when
someone shouts an insult they’re not
usually revealing the secret truth about
their feelings they are trying to wound
the other person because they feel that
they’ve been hurt usually by someone
else whom they don’t have the authority
to injure back charity is interested in
mitigating circumstances in bits of the
truth that can cast a less catastrophic
light on our follies in financial
matters charity tends always to flow in
one direction the philanthropist may be
very generous but usually they stay rich
they are habitually the giver rather
than the recipient but in life as a
whole and especially in relationships
charity is unlikely ever to end up being
one-sided
who is weak and who is powerful changes
rapidly and frequently you’re likely to
be as it were a patron in one area and a
beggar in another so we must be kind not
only because we are touched by the
suffering of others but because we
properly understand that we too will
soon be in urgent need of an equally
vital dose of charity in some other part of our lives
Christianity it used to have a central
place in Roman ethics and Judaism as
well today we remain deeply impressed by
the idea of charity but often from a
distance without probing the concept too
deeply with little attempt to practice
it systematically it’s something we
might have recourse to when we’re moved
by a documentary on TV or have some
loose change left over after the
holidays at its most basic charity means
giving someone something they need but
can’t get for themselves and normally
that’s understood to mean something
material we overwhelmingly associate
charity with giving money the heroes of
Christianity are exemplars of just such
charity outside the city st. Francis
comes across a poor man his garments are
thin and ragged winter is coming on and
coats are expensive the saint is moved
to charity but at its core charity goes
far beyond finance it’s about
recognizing that a person needs help
with something that they can’t do for
themselves and that their helplessness
is not a sign of wickedness or sin but
is part of the human condition we freely
give because we appreciate how often we
wouldn’t have made it if other people
had not at key points in different
contexts cut us some slack it’s in
relationships that charity becomes
particularly necessary here we don’t
generally require the charity of money
cloaks and free meals what we are short
of is charity of interpretation that is
a charitable perspective on our
weaknesses eccentricities anxieties and
follies failings that we’re unable to
explain or win sympathy for that we
merely act out with immaturity and hurt
it might be the one person in a couple
has badly messed up in their
professional life
they made a significant decision at work
that played out badly they got severely
criticized there was talk of court
action for months they were agitated and
hard to live with they couldn’t
articulate their fears they were sullen
and irascible their partner might have
added stern admonitions to those of the
regulator the senior management and
people on Twitter they could have
concluded that their partner was inept
Reidy maybe a bit unprincipled but
instead a charitable soul does the work
the partner has not been able to do they
do the explaining for them they
understand enough about their past to
have a picture of where their impatience
and over ambition come from they hold in
mind what happened with their parents
and with a move to another country and
with a brother who died too young they
lend a picture of who the beggar is that
is sufficiently generous and complex as
to make them more than just the fool or
the weirdo they could so easily have
been dismissed as the genuinely
charitable person gives generously from
a sense that they to stand in need of
charity not right now not over this
necessarily but in some other area they
know that self-righteousness is merely
the result of a faulty memory an
inability to hold in mind at moments
when one is totally right how often
one’s been deeply and definitively in
the wrong in other contexts charity
remembers how there might still be
goodness amidst a lot of evil charity
keeps in mind that if someone is tired
and stressed they are liable to behave
appallingly charity is aware that when
someone shouts an insult they’re not
usually revealing the secret truth about
their feelings they are trying to wound
the other person because they feel that
they’ve been hurt usually by someone
else whom they don’t have the authority
to injure back charity is interested in
mitigating circumstances in bits of the
truth that can cast a less catastrophic
light on our follies in financial
matters charity tends always to flow in
one direction the philanthropist may be
very generous but usually they stay rich
they are habitually the giver rather
than the recipient but in life as a
whole and especially in relationships
charity is unlikely ever to end up being
one-sided
who is weak and who is powerful changes
rapidly and frequently you’re likely to
be as it were a patron in one area and a
beggar in another so we must be kind not
only because we are touched by the
suffering of others but because we
properly understand that we too will
soon be in urgent need of an equally
vital dose of charity in some other part of our lives
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