30 March to 6 April
Space maker or space taker?
Festive times bring out the crowds on roads, pavements and in the shops, which is why, last Christmas, I found myself pondering ethical questions about how we cope with space and the need to share it with others, as we move about in our consumer society. How, for example, do we manage the business of moving around supermarkets when the density of human traffic involves a series of continuous accommodations to survive on our feet without knocking others off theirs? Accommodations that reflect concern with our own interests and (here's the ethical rub) those of others.
Consider the practicalities: people shop at very different paces; some have trolleys, others don't; some pause to talk with friends. Each of these can cause mayhem, but none in itself is of moral relevance. Yet the way we handle these situations certainly is, because it reflects the extent to which we are willing to come to terms with the needs of others, and our sense of space as a dimension which has to be shared. There's more in play here than mere convenience or convention - at stake is the principle about which we often anguish, the principle of civility and its moral underpinnings.
Ralph T. White is a parishioner at Manchester Cathedral, where an earlier version of this reflection first appeared in the Cathedral Magazine, which often runs ethical reflections that first appeared on this page.