„The buyer is willing and able to pay the purchase price.“ That was once written – among other things – in a purchase contract I was about to sign. „Willing and able“. I had to pause at the term. Wasn’t it testimony enough to will that I sat there and wanted to sign the contract? And shouldn’t it then be assumed that I am then also „able“ to pay the purchase price, that I am „able“ to dispose of the required resources? Shouldn’t one only be willing if one is also able to implement the will? Apparently not. That’s why it had to be put in writing again. I was probably a bit naive at the time.
„Willing and able“. A phrase that I have memorized. For more than 10 years, this term keeps haunting my mind… Why?
I have – in the meantime then nevertheless – found out that many people are „willing“, but by the circumstances often not „able“. In the case of crime, we are happy when the potential perpetrator is prevented from committing his crime by the police. If he cannot put his will into action. It is good if he does not have the necessary resources to enforce his will.
But there is also another side. My wife and I work relatively little. Why? Because we are willing to serve our fellow men. Not (only) by working and paying taxes to an abstract community in materialism, but by direct action on the „neighbor“, so to speak (to use this rather Christian term for once. It is not that wrong), directly at being human, so to speak. And as in the contract I signed 10 years ago, it is not enough to be „willing“. No, you also have to be „able“ to do it. And just as in that contract the resource I needed was disposable money, so in our current case it is disposable time. Time, in other words, that I am not acquiring money, that I am not spending getting to and from work, that I am not sitting at home exhausted, that I am not spending on distractions, and that I am not sleeping. And this is the other side, which I mentioned above: Man in general hardly has this resource, called freely available time. How can he, even if he were willing, serve his fellow men, support them, do good to them, be with them and thus render a real service to society?
We have decided or it has decided for us that we want to be able to do this (rather maybe even have to). And even if we have little money, it makes us happy to see the others happy(er) too. When we can give them our time. When shopping, when talking, when sick, …when dying. We can always be there. There is no „Unfortunately, I don’t have time for that now“. Day and night. And also almost no matter where. One can go there. You can still help even in these times.
The pension will be small. Okay. But we hardly need anything. Living forever is not our goal either… And so, over the years, it has become clear to me what „being willing and able“ really means to us and what resource we need for it. And how we – and everyone else as well – can obtain it…