Have you ever read The Giver by Lois Lowry? If yes, then you were probably a product of the American public school system at some point in the 1990s. If not, then go get a copy at your local library. The Book it! stickers and Pizza Hut personal pan pizzas may no longer exist as rewards and you probably can’t buy it through Scholastic book fairs but it is readable in one sitting. I’m a sucker for all forms of artistic utopia and even dystopia irrespective of trite story lines and analogous themes. Think of The Giver as a PG version of George Orwell’s 1984 – which happens to be one of my favorite novels. Jonas, the protagonist, is selected to be the new “Receiver” of a society where individuals have no knowledge or exercise of love or pain. Daily movements, jobs, interactions and information are all tightly controlled. The Elders of the society recognize the importance of understanding the outside world and past generations by placing the memories of humankind upon one individual: the Receiver. He provides wisdom and advice to those with no knowledge of war, love, freedom, or suffering as he draws upon memories the elders have no knowledge of. The current Receiver begins to train Jonas for the role by transmitting to him all of his memories by placing his hand on his back. Remember, it is a children’s novel! While the official title given by the society is The Receiver, Jonas begins to call him The Giver. The Receiver thus becomes The Giver of memories to Jonas. To spoil the story for you, the pain and suffering that is revealed to Jonas through the giving of humanity’s memories becomes overwhelming. His new awareness of the world around him causes him to inspect his own community. He decides that he would rather reside in a society with freedom and the potential of pain and suffering than be in isolation and safety. His awareness leads to action - going AWOL. His action leads to advocating – sharing his knowledge with other members of the community. However, when he was just a member of society and before his awareness, he was just ignorant. Before his action, he was just informed. And before his advocacy, he was just intrepid.

A good deal can be gleaned from Jonas’ experience. In the face of need, we all give. Some of us give money. Some of us give time. Some of us give sympathy. Some of us give apathy. And an ever small portion of us give of our entire selves. I believe that if ignorance is bliss then awareness is binding. Ignorance generates a good amount of attention while awareness for some reason generates little action. Enveloped by information, there is very little that happens in the world that we do not have the ability to learn about. Thus, many of us are quite informed of the nefarious actions and conditions of humanity. An American unaware of the existence of poverty or HIV/AIDS would be shocking. An American aware of these ills and not taking action? That would be status quo.

My coworker came in this week visibly shaken. It has been difficult to anticipate her state of emotions these past few months as she has been working her way through an unfortunate divorce. However, this morning the culprit was different. She explained that as she sat down on the Metro, she felt the man next to hear reach back. At first she thought he was simply reaching for his wallet. She quickly realized that the man was groping her. Embarrassed, she immediately stood up in shock and the perpetrator walked to another part of the train. A male passenger had witnessed the whole thing and said to her, “that was really awkward, I’m sorry”. She stared in even more disbelief that the passenger had not done or said anything. As she relayed the story to me, I was shocked that the passenger hadn’t done anything either! He was aware of what was happening but chose not to take action. My coworker expected and needed action against the problem, not awareness that it was happening.

I like the saying that they won’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.

I pray and aspire to not stop at awareness and be like Jonas.