on worthiness ...

Recently I made the decision to revisit some old places, customs and very dear thoughts which led me to revisit even physically places where I find that comfort, that solace, where I feel recommitted to live my life according to the dictates of my own conscience; it is a great experience to revisit, reconnect and recommit, some call it even SMART goal setting which includes that outwardly commitment shared with others to help us along the way on our commitment to our goals. As I shared my joyful experience with a dear friend she asked me about the principle of "worthiness" and asked me if having prerequisites of certain standard called worthiness are rather exclusive and not inclusive as one would hope, she asked me if the concept of worthiness was rather a way to discriminate. I was shocked to say the least.

I am grateful for friends that make me question my own believes, I am thrilled by those who ask questions as that is the only way to learn, to inquire, to have an inquisitive mind; not to say to be a doubter nor disbeliever but rather to have an inquiring mind, open to any and all answers. I wondered if the question was posed rather as a Straw Man argument against my religious beliefs or as a dear Britt friend would call it as an Aunt Sally; it is because of that that I decided to dig into it and see for myself what was behind the topic of worthiness.

First I must explore, I suppose, the meaning of the word, the etymology; one end leads us to the Germanic root wert which means to become and the other to the Latin root vertere to turn to, to bend. No relation to what we use the word to mean nowadays I thought, until I went to my good old Spanish roots and the word worth takes me back to dignity rather with the Latin root dignus which is deserving. So to put all of them together worthiness has to do with a deserved value given but also it is something we become or turn to get to; a two way meaning; one has to do with intrinsic value and the other with the value drawn from responsibility rather, from our actions. It is at times like this that I wish we could have more words, make them complete and separate so no one, including my friend or myself, would get confused by simple semantics.

Now I had to think of who gives me that intrinsic value first, and what is that value in the second place. I can certainly think of self value, self-worth we call it, but often we are not the most honest ones to figure this one out as we might tend to over or under sell ourselves. Can it be nature? Society? the Universe? God? where do we derive that value from? Well, it is individual, each of us derives it from somewhere, and whether correct or not it is what we do and we call it our self worth, to some is higher, to others is lower and to others even it is right on the dot. To those like me with my belief system I place it as high as it gets: there is a supreme God and I am His child (and so is everybody for that matter) In His eyes I (and everybody else) is of immense worth due to our nature, even heirs to all He has. Because I happen to believe in this particular dogma therefore I conclude this is my intrinsic value and the intrinsic value of every human in this earth. It is in this sense that we are all "worthy", in the sense of equality under the eyes of God. For those who do not believe in God and all the thoughts of being worthy because of a divine nature there is perhaps a comparative set of values set in The Universal Declaration of Human Rights written years ago by the United Nations, a good read might help understand what is that we as humans have agreed is our intrinsic value and obligations (which leads me to the second part of this word.)

To be worthy OF something is rather a consideration of work and responsibility and not merely a given as it is with intrinsic value. To be worthy of an A on a math class I must do the things that will grant me that mark, otherwise my efforts will give me the merited grade and not necessarily my anxiously desired A. When religious people talk about worthiness they talk rather about worthiness OF something, worthy to partake of the Eucharist, worthy to attend the Temple, etc. not of individual worth due to our nature. I like the concept of the three stages of worthiness taught in Buddhism, as it entails a series of progression, a process if one may, and not a mere momentary decision nor an intrinsic and non-merited one. Worthiness in this sense has more to do with preparation, with responsibility of obligations taken upon oneself prior to the beginning of classes per say. 

Am I worthy or unworthy? depends! I am not worthy of a PhD in physics for sure as I have not made merits for it nor studied anything about it. Am I worthy of my fellow travellers of life love and understanding? Yes, as I am one of them and my worth is equal to any and all of us. Am I worthy of my gym attendance? well only if I have paid my fees and behave as outlined by their rules and regulations. We are all worthy of many things in life and equally unworthy of some other ones, yet of those things we are not worthy of, I am certain there is a way to become worthy of them, as the root of the word itself describes it, to become, to turn to. 

I like the preamble to The Universal Declaration Of Human Rights and wish we should all read it (it was mandatory in my High School to read it and be quizzed about it) :

"Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world ... Whereas the peoples of the United Nations have reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person ... Whereas a common understanding of these rights and freedoms is of the greatest importance for the full realization of this pledge ..."