Response-able

I was away on Spring Break for a week, which afforded me the opportunity to ponder many of the perplexing issues of life while I walked on the beach near my parents’ home in Florida. One of these was, “When did air travel become so truly exhausting and annoying?” This time I found myself standing in line for the privilege of paying to check baggage (as if normal travelers do not require the luxury of a change of clothing), followed by standing in line to show my boarding pass and ID. Truthfully, the only people who could identify me from my driver's license photo are my mother and the one brilliant kid in class who could find Waldo on every page.

After my exhaustive interrogation by security ("Is this you?" he asked pointing to my photo. "Yes" I replied.), I was able to stand in line again to go through the X-ray machine. It seems a bit incongruous to me watching a line of adults dutifully removing their shoes, belts and other articles of clothing anywhere but in a Doctor's office. That everyone did so without a whiff of protest (except for the woman arguing over whether flip flops constituted "shoes") says something about 21st century America, and I believe has to do with our current perception of responsibility.

You see, "personal responsibility" has been elevated to the status of a virtue and, along with "tolerance", is now seen as the hallmark of an enlightened individual. Honesty, love, piety, joy, compassion, persistence and humility are seen as slightly outdated and underwhelming manifestations of personal responsibility, when in fact it is the opposite. However, as lofty an ideal as "personal responsibility" is, it can apparently be achieved when we agree to remove our shoes at the airport.

Now please don't get me wrong. I want to be safe on airplanes, and I realize we must put up with a certain amount of inconvenience to do so. What I am concerned with is the general attitude that I saw: If we do the things we are told to do, then we will be safe (maybe) and we do not have to do anything else for ourselves (wrong).

After security check I walked to the gate, where a large group of people was milling about without purpose. That ended when they announced that the flight would be boarding in 15 minutes. We now had purpose and the Type-A's quickly got into line so that they could wait while standing for those 15 minutes. The remaining passengers were in two groups: those that wondered if they should get in line and those who were calculating how much time they had to get to the rest room. You'll have to guess which one I was.

Upon reaching my seat, I noticed an elderly couple that could not reach the overhead bin to store their carry-on. As God made me and my 6'5" frame for just such an occasion, I was feeling pretty useful when I heard the dreaded cabin announcement (much like Charlie Brown's teacher, and just about as easy to understand): "We cannot leave until everyone is seated and buckled up." Noticing I was the only one standing, I wondered if the elderly couple realized that their lack of foresight in needing to use the overhead bin might be the cause of a late departure for the airline and possibly the loss of a job for the individual in charge of late departure percentages. I wondered if the couple even understood the extent of their personal responsibility here and the consequences to the other passengers, the airline, the Supervisor of Late Departure Percentages and the U.S. economy and global relations.

You see, this issue of "personal responsibility" is being touted as the solution to many of our problems. Our children hear that if we all just took on our responsibilities we could get out of the economic mess, we could thwart terrorism, we could halt global warming and we could feed the world – at least according to the media. Our children are also told, without a hint of irony by the same media, that their main responsibility in life is to themselves, their goals, their ambitions and their personal happiness. At the best, this is confusing and at the worst it is paralyzing.

They need to be taught that they are responsible only in those areas in which they are able to respond: the sphere of influence within which God has placed them. Matt Emerzian, among others, is doing great work in helping students to understand these parameters and motivate them to accomplish great things with their God-given abilities and opportunities.

Even more importantly, our children need to be taught that their main responsibility is to God and His calling on their lives. God enables each of us to respond to Him and use the talents we are given to fulfill our unique purpose. When we respond and do so with love, compassion, honesty, piety, perseverance and humility, then we are doing all that we can, and we are no longer ultimately responsible for the results – God is. If our children can learn this, they will be neither overwhelmed nor narcissistically self-centered. When a community of believers can do this together, as is the potential in any church, Christian school or other faith-based ministry, then children have role models they can emulate and goals they can appropriately aspire to.

By the way, after I sat down a flight attendant came by to tell me I had to put my seatback straight up. At least I know that if I ever crash in a plane, I will do so with good posture and something I no longer have to be responsible for.