Haven’t we all watched houses being built on a flood plain
and wondered at the cupidity of the developers?
It is clearly down to greed, indifference to those who will
suffer when the floods come, poor research or even the unfailing human ability
to hope that the worst will never happen and everything will continue to be
fine.
In our position as detached observers, we see the planning
application going through – more stupidity or worse on the part of the local
council, in order to fulfil its housing quota, plus any benefits that accrue to
it – and then the houses being built, which of course brings work to tradesmen
and solicitors (so that’s all good then); and finally we see hopeful, happy,
relieved families move into their proudest possession.
Then the inevitable happens and the beautiful new homes,
someone’s pride and joy, are flooded.
The developers, council, builders and peripheral artisans are not
affected. The only people adversely affected
are those who in all innocence bought the house of their dreams.
But don’t we all build our lives on ‘quicksand’ at some
stage, or in some aspect or another?
When I first saw the film, ‘The Devil Wears Prada’, I thought it was
about the Meryl Streep character being such a poisonous witch, the eponymous
devil. But on the second viewing I
realised the truth: people sell their souls to get what they want in life; or
what at that point in time they think is the most desirable thing to have. The would-be journalist in the film, played
by Ann Hathaway, eventually pulled back in time, but not before she had
committed terrible errors of moral judgement to achieve what she thought was
desirable.
Most people probably think they do not sell out to the devil. But greed, lust, envy and the rest of the 7
deadly sins are in fact all ethical choices we have failed to make correctly.
I had a dream the other night in which I sneered at the
stupidity of a supermarket locating its store so close to the sea that the
first high tide started to swamp it.
When I woke I realised this was an allegory, a message for me about an
aspect of my life. I am not interested
in owning a Prada outfit or a brand new home on a flood plain, and I don’t
think I’m greedy; but perhaps we all need to look at our lives sometimes and
wonder if we’re really living life as ethically as we had always thought.
For further reading: “Ancient Wisdom, Modern World: Ethics
for the new millennium” by the Dalai Lama.
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