I came across these four characters today ... 飲茶思源
Translated literally, it doesn't really make sense: "drink tea, think source". A more accurate interpretation is that of "when one drinks tea, one thinks of its source"
Obviously the message extends beyond just the beverage ... that is, no matter your success in life, don't forget where you came from. It seems deceptively simple - make a great living for yourself, stay humble, right? But to me, there's even more to that. It extends itself to be applicable to something much more fundamental to what's lacking in American society ... the ability to think beyond the self to truly consider how we got to where we are.
We are undoubtedly a culture that prides itself on its individualist ethic and "pull yourself up by your own bootstraps" philosophy. That's wonderful. But somewhere along the way, we've become too smug with ourselves. We start to think that we all somehow magically worked hard on our own to deserve all of the luxuries that we enjoy now, and lose sight of everything and everyone that helped us along the way. More importantly, it bothers me that we start to think that we deserve and others don't, and that we shouldn't have to contribute to give others the same social support structures that helped us out (i.e. like paying taxes to fund the millions of public services that we, both rich and poor, use but take for granted and don't even think about). To claim that we do everything on our own is, I think, at the very least quite naïve.
Let me put this to a concrete example: Yesterday was the voting day for municipal elections here in San Francisco (various ballot measures/propositions, mayoral election, etc). In all honesty, I was considering not casting my ballot because, what difference does it make, right? But I had a nagging inkling in my brain that was telling me that people all over the world fight and die for the right to participate in something as seemingly trivial as a municipal election. What does this have to do with my 飲茶思源 philosophy, though?
Well, one of the ballot measures was a proposition to make it so that school enrollment priority would be given to those who live closest to the school. It seems like a pretty logical proposal - that is, if the academic playing field were already even. The reality is that with propositions like these, only kids whose parents can afford to live in certain neighborhoods can go to certain schools. With public schools largely funded by property taxes, this means that expensive neighborhoods which generate a lot of property tax then create schools with lots of funding. The opposite is equally true: neighborhoods that have low property values subsequently have low-funded educational programs. I am a perfect example of this case ... I grew up in an upper middle class, gated, golf-course and mountain preserve backed suburb. I went to excellent public schools only because I happened to live in that neighborhood (our schools were closed-border districts). How is this fair? I did nothing to "deserve" a better chance at a full-ride scholarship to college, the free time to pursue impressive neurological institute internships and resume-building extracurriculars than somebody who lived on the other side of the mountain from me.
This always bothers me. It's so easy to think that I deserved my scholarship because I studied hard, did well in school, and planned ahead. Likewise, it's so easy to think that the other kid slacked off or was lazy and unambitious which is why he/she is unable to pull him/herself out of their less fortunate circumstances. But what about the idea that perhaps that kid couldn't get stellar grades because instead of studying in a quiet bedroom with a large desk around, he had to worry and make sure that his mother was taking her medication and his brother would get home safely and not get caught up in the gang war just outside their door in the neighborhood. Or that the same kid couldn't pursue impressive internships and extracurriculars because he was too busy simply working nights at the 24-hour diner to pay for food and the bills that his family could hardly afford, let alone textbooks and school supplies.
The average American's solution to all of this is to simply point a finger at the exceptionally rare instances of a scant handful of people who satisfy this "rags to riches" narrative we like to perpetuate. We're a culture that values sensationalism, and we indoctrinate kids at such a young age with this ... the Cinderella story for one. We say, "those people did it with their hard work ... so anybody can". But we make those rare instances seem so commonplace with all of our hype, and then give ourselves the "okay" to not have to think about what we truly did to deserve what we have or where we're at in life, and then end up actually convincing ourselves that we did everything on our own. I had posted a video of a talk Elizabeth Warrens gave where she put it pretty plain and simple: you build a big factory and make lots of money from it because your business does well, by all means, good for you. Great job. But you transported your goods to market on the roads that we [taxpayers] built, had your business thrive because of the police forces and military forces funded by all of us that kept your factory safe, received an education that was subsidized by the government (yes, even private universities), and were given opportunities in your life because of the risk you could afford to take because of the social safety net that we all put in place. Is it too much to ask that you pay it forward for the next person?
When I drink tea, I do think of its source ... I'm humbled by how incredible it is that this thousands-year-old practice is still done pretty much the same way, and how a leaf on a plant can be crafted to taste so different depending on its origins. But the philosophy is much more than that. It's about understanding that we don't all start off the same, and where we get to is already largely determined by the circumstances that we are born into. By all means, our choices do affect where we go in life and how we get to where we do ... but they operate within a framework which has very real boundaries (both figuratively and literally, in the case of the school boundary proposition on the municipal election ballot). We alone do not determine our outcomes, despite what we Americans would like to believe.
I think we'd do wise to understand that.
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