Home » Blog

Desert Parents and Stolen Bicycles

30 May 2006 3 Comments

From Geez Magazine:

Abba Isaac said that Abba Pambo (304-373) used to say, “The monk’s garment should be such that he could throw it out of his cell for three days and no-one would take it.”

I had not heard this quote before the last two times my bike was stolen, but I’d say this summarizes well my feelings. When my bike was stolen my initial thought was that I owned something that was better or nicer then others had and I had been keeping it for myself. Now, I understand there is a good chance the person who took it did not take it out of need for a bicycle, they might have simply taken it to sell it for some money. Regardless, I find myself uncomfortable with the need to put locks on my things.
The very act of locking up my possessions seems to say “this is mine and you can not have it.” This attitude is not how I want to live my life. Locking up my things acknowledge’s that I have in my possession something other’s desire and I intended to keep them from it. If I truely love my neighbor as myself, how can I withhold from them and keep for me?
I want my life to be one where I see another’s need and I do everything within my power and resources to meet that need. If I leave my “garment” out for three days and someone takes it, then it is a good sign to me that I probably should have already give it to them.

And, yet, I use my bike to get to and from work, which makes it possible for me to have the resources to provide for others needs. I bought a bike and I’m torn about it.

Is Abba Pambo’s words challenging advice? Or are they too radical?

1 Star2 Stars3 Stars
Loading ... Loading ...

3 Comments »

  • Richard Daley said:

    I think if you put out your garment for three days and someone takes it, it’s a sign that they need a garment. The question is, what would giving them that particular garment be the most loving thing you could do for that person individually and for your community as a group.

    Your example with the bicycle is a good one. You could give up your bicycle, but by putting a lock on your bicycle, you can use that bicycle to get to work where you can earn enough money so that you can help provide multiple bicycles, both to the person who would have stolen your bicycle and to the community in general.

    There is also the problem of enabling as well. This blog post (http://www.barrioprophets.com/weblog/?p=185) talks about it better than I could, but if by leaving your bicycle to be stolen you help to perpetuate the idea that illegal means of making a living are easer than legal means, then you may be doing more long term harm to the society/community than the profit of a free bicycle could bring. A better idea would be to use your resources in support of programs that meet physical needs in ways that promote healthy communities.

    Now I am not saying that you shouldn’t throw a garment out so that someone can take it, I’m just cautioning that you should consider, on a case by case basis, whether this is the best use of the garment (with the caveat that this argument is really only valid if you are actually following up on the better use of the garment)

    # 30 May 2006 at 11:37 pm
  • Zach said:

    I think that that quote does do a great job of summerizing how i know you feel about it. And that’s why you don’t like locking your bike up. But if it gets stolen, you need to be ok with it. If it’s going to bother you that it gets taken, you need to lock it up. I’ve heard that one of the first things they teach the marines is that from this point on, you’re already dead. Then they don’t have to fear dying in war…they are already dead, and they can fight like men who aren’t worried about staying alive. Good quote by the way.

    # 31 May 2006 at 7:28 am
  • arobin said:

    I used to think that same way about locks. Then someone challenged me about not putting temptation before others which would cause them to stumble. I hate to say this but I think security is relative to the society that you live in. Once you have been the victim of an intruder as my wife and I have, putting a dead bolt on the door and having a guard dog seems a small price to pay for a good night’s sleep.

    # 31 May 2006 at 3:04 pm

Leave your response!

Add your comment below, or trackback from your own site. You can also subscribe to these comments via RSS.

Be nice. Keep it clean. Stay on topic. No spam.

You can use these tags:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>

This is a Gravatar-enabled weblog. To get your own globally-recognized-avatar, please register at Gravatar.