Functional Caring Or Not

I have no idea who made the clothes I wear or grew the food I eat or packaged anything I have.  If these people get sick or have troubles do I really care?  Not really.  If my shirt says, "Made in Vietnam," I don't know anyone in Vietnam.  If the country is having economic upheavals, I pay little to no attention.  These are what are called "functional" relationships.  There was a time, even in my life, when we knew who prepared the things we eat.  I knew all the Mom and Pop stores in our Bronx neighborhood.  Longer ago then that, in small communities, people did know the farmer, who knew the baker, who knew the tailor and so on.  They cared about what happened to and with one another.  These are called "reciprocal" relationships.  I read that what comes out of these relationships is the Principle of Gratitude.  We are grateful to persons who do something for us.  I feel no gratitude to Vietnam for sewing my shirt.  We tend to be grateful for what an individual we know, or encounter does for us, but not for what a large comglomerate  is doing for us.  When people say they don't like some big organization it may be because of an individual event or simply because of some opinion or what they read.  When I go to the hospital to visit someone and pray with them, they are grateful.  It is the one on one encounter.  One encounter in love and concern, a gentle smile, a sense of humor, can counter attitudes of a functional nature.  The reciprocal always trumps the functional.  Now if I met the woman who made my shirt, I might break out in gratitude!