A Sense of Responsibility

From the Gill Tarot, the Six of Disks; from The Circle, Conflict:

Until the great mass of the people shall be filled with the sense of responsibility for each other's welfare, social justice can never be attained. ~Helen Keller

Gill gives this card the keyword of well-being, not just for an individual but applying it to all. In Buddhism, the three poisons - greed, hatred and delusion - have antidotes in generosity, loving-kindness and wisdom. The first three bring discontent while the second three bring joy and a sense of well-being. But getting people to willingly share their resources usually creates a push back, as Conflict shows. Often, we don't want to imagine ourselves in a place of need, so we try to ignore those who currently are. But that worrisome feeling will dog us no matter how far we try to push it down. Psychiatrist and researcher Helen Riess found that physicians who turned off their feelings and created emotional distance not only had patients who distrusted them, they became lonelier and burned out themselves. As Riess explained, "All parties are equally enriched when we perceive and respond to each other with empathy and compassion."