Leonard Carr of the South African news organization Times Live examines the connection between your level of self reliance and how you interact with your environment. He decides that the “Truly noble tidy up their mess“:

Servitude occurs when you live in a state of lack. The consequent need that arises from what you lack makes you dependent on the help of others. This puts you in an inferior position to those upon whom you depend. Freedom, on the other hand, is characterised by self-sufficiency, self-respect and self-reliance. In short, it is the independence to, among other things, look after yourself and take care of your own needs.

If have often felt similarly. I worked on the housekeeping staff for a department store to put myself through college, and while a certain amount of mess can be expected from even the most considerate people, there were some messes we would find that could only have been intentional–someone who either felt themselves too important to take care of their own messes, or someone who got some sort of thrill out of making others take care of it for them. I can only feel for those people. Someday they are going to be in a situation where no one else will or can take care of them, and they simply won’t know how to cope.

On the other hand, I have seen some of the most high-ranking people in various organizations go to unusual lengths to tidy up after themselves. It speaks volumes, not only about how they view themselves, but how they view others. Those are the people who truly deserve the positions they have risen to. Those are the people most worth paying attention to in matters of importance.

I hope I never rise so high in life that I ever forget what it was like to clean hand prints off of glass partitions. And should I ever stoop to low as to purposely smudge a freshly cleaned window I hope the janitorial gods strike me dead on the spot. I will have ceased to provide any true value in the world.

In my recent research into self reliance I have begun coming across uses of the phrase “self reliance” in a negative connotation. These are almost always in reference to religion, and usually describing a person’s relationship with God. In this case the self reliant person is trusting in their own strength and abilities and not in God.

This is not to pick on religion or anti-religion. This is simply to clarify something. When I refer to self reliance in this blog it is not in that sense. Self reliance, as far as this site is concerned, simply refers to ones state of preparedness and ability to subsist with minimal charitable assistance from others.

However, I will state here also that I am a religious person. I believe that God wants us to be self reliant in the sense I have discussed and, to quote a common phrase, that “God helps those who help themselves.” We rely on God, and we acknowledge our reliance on him, but we minimize the extent to which we are beholden to other people. Owing too much to others limits our ability to fully explore our relationship with God. Or, to refer to another common quote, “No man can serve two masters.”

Now, having clarified that, I don’t intend to get overly religious on this site. I want to include as many people as I can, and you don’t do that by purposely picking fights. If self reliance is your interest I really don’t care if it’s because of religion, environmental concerns, thrift, doomsday-ism, or because the voice in your freezer that normally says “Zuul” is encouraging you. If you have something to add, please do. If you find something of value here, wonderful!

Nor will I exclude religion. Religion, especially my own, often has a lot to add to the discussion of self reliance. If it’s appropriate to the discussion I won’t shy away from it. I think we can all be respectful of each others’ beliefs and still discuss our own when we have something to add. I think we can learn from one another.

That’s what this site is all about.