Rocks and Swimming Pools

Welcome back. Again I bring up the topic of child labor because it is so prevalent in our times. All across the world we are hearing of more and more children caught up in hard labor, long hours, lack of food, medicine and sleep and no one to fight for them. I just can't let it rest. This weekend our organization had the opportunity to share our work and to raise, not only awareness of the needs of other countries, but much-needed funds. Forgive me for being so negative, but I was somewhat shocked by the lack of compassion, charity and interest in our work in Africa with the orphans we sponsor. Of course, there were many who spoke to us about how much good we do, but was there any tangible evidence that people really cared about these children or any other countries' children? It would be safe to say that a few really cared, but many were glazed over as we spoke. How can we reach them and ignite a fire within them of love for the world's children? This is my desire. Jesus Christ was very forthright in His approach. He called a spade a spade. A lot of missionaries we have read about gave their lives as they spoke out fearlessly for the injustices they witnessed - i.e. Sister Dorothy Stang in the Brazilian rainforest, Archbishop Oscar Romero in El Salvador and so many countless others. Does it always have to come to death? Whether it is for hatred or love, death seems to always win out in the end. As a Christian I do believe there is life beyond death, but you know what I mean, don't you? Someone is always having to die for their beliefs while on earth. Recently in the New York Times, a friend of mine brought to my attention that on the front page, front and center, was an article written about children in Zambia who break rocks for 7-10 hours a day or possibly more for a few dollars. Grandmothers and little children, working alongside one another, trying to eake out a living by breaking rocks in the hot sun with little or no food, with the broken rocks now create a smooth swimming pool surface. These children sit there in a rock pile, breaking the rocks into a fine grain in order to be used for cement blocks for swimming pools! How can anyone swim in a pool filled, not with water, but with the tears and runny noses of children aged 4 to 15? It is incomprehensible to me. Yet, we, in America, are guilty of some of this activity halfway around the world. "How?" you wonder? Poverty is the whole human race's problem. It is created by humanity and allowed to persist because those who have much either don't want to share it or those who live in it are unable to get any help to be free of it. What else is there, really? Do we really expect a 5-year-old child with no parents, no food, no school, who is forced to work in order to feed his/her belly, to find a way out of this cycle of poverty by themselves? Only love, compassion and charity can lift that child up into its arms and nurture him/her. Love is a person - a hug - a caring shoulder to cry on. People must help people. Anyway, I am sad to see apathy in the face of such suffering. It is a haunting melody playing out in my mind while I work, play and sleep. It won't go away.

All To Jesus I Surrender

It was a very full day today. Lots of people were in my heart, mind and presence. As the day progressed, I visited people, called people, prayed for people and just took pleasure in being able to have such wonderful people in my life. As I traveled through the day I realized how blest I was and how many terrific people are in my life today. There are people who pray with me, people who talk with me, people who visit with me and share their lives, people who work alongside me in our mission, and people who enjoy life by sightseeing, growing and learning. As I blog about my life and the things that happen to me, I reflect on the idea that nothing is more important than this day. I think Goethe said something like that once. It is important for me to remain "in the day" because it is where everything is REAL. Yesterday is gone, tomorrow isn't here yet, but today is HERE and it invites me to enter into it with my full self - fully human, fully alive. It is true that some days are not great days - there is still pain and suffering that goes with my life, but not every day is like that. I just watched a movie about Dorothy Day's life called "Entertaining Angels." I've seen it several times, but each time I watch it I learn something more from her. She just didn't settle for what life handed her - she looked at it, reflected on it, criticized it, and did something about it. This is why she was so inclined to be a Communist in her day because the Communists were doing something constructive about the poverty and unemployment. As the movie went on it became clearer to her that being a Catholic was not only active, but it was loving and caring towards those who were poor. Being Catholic to her wasn't just giving food, clothing, or shelter to people, but it was giving love along with all those things. A Communist in her day was just concerned with equality and jobs, not much to do about loving and caring. Catholicism gets a bad rap today because of human weakness and politics, but at the heart of it, the Gospel message keeps urging us on to do exactly what Dorothy Day did - love her neighbors as Christ had loved her - personally, compassionately and selflessly. There were many times she was criticized because she gave everything away to the poor - even the rent money they needed to live on, but she radically gave it to the poor knowing full well that her God would care for her needs and those she was caring for as well. It is the same thing I have experienced so far in my life - the more you give to those in need, the more you receive and you never run out. It is a good day when I can say I have loved, given myself and saved nothing for myself.

Trapped By The Trinity

Today I visited a friend who is also a co-founder of our non-profit, Sobornost For The World Foundation, Inc. She and I shared a few hours together sharing our summer vacation experiences, Vespers (evening prayer), a walk to the nearby village and dinner at the Greek Restaurant. It was a time to kick back a little and just enjoy the summer weather with a like-minded friend. She and I talked about whether we would go to another country to do work with children there, entertained the thought of whether or not a new store was needed to help move fair trade along on Long Island, and stopped by the cathedral to pray in silence while the Spanish-speaking people were celebrating Mass. While we sat in the stillness, listening to the Spanish words of the readings from Scripture, we tried to focus on what God might want to say to us on this beautiful summer day. My experience was an image - a tripod, with me under it, and a camera above on the tripod. When I saw this image, the thought that came to mind was that I was "overshadowed by the Trinity" and that the rest of Sobornost was represented as the camera - fully and actively taking it all in. Because of health concerns earlier in the year I had to take some time away from the active work I was doing to re-evaluate my health needs. Time has sped by and I find myself wanting to get involved more actively than I presently am, but now that I've seen this image I know I have to wait. In a humorous way I saw myself as "trapped by the Holy Trinity!" Being trapped or confined right now within the Trinity's grasp is not a bad place to be! In fact, there probably isn't any place I'd rather be, but being an active person keeps me wondering if I should go back "out there" to help out. I don't really know if I'll ever learn the lesson of waiting on God completely. It is so hard for me to wait when I don't see the road up ahead and I feel alone. Feeling alone is one of my worst problems. It causes me to jump, jolt and sprint when I should be still, silent and slow. When I finally reach the end of my life I hope I have learned this lesson of waiting on God well. Waiting is faith lived out. I should realize by now that when the pupil is ready the master will appear!

See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil

I have just returned from a visit to Texas where my family resides. One of the experiences I had while I was visiting was when I went to Central Market and World Market. These two very large chain stores are in some ways similar to what we are doing in our fair trade store in New York. The only problem I had was that neither of them was fair trade and they had never heard of fair trade. Both managers from the two stores looked at me mystified when I asked them if they had ever heard of it. The problem with this is that they are unfamiliar with exploitation in other countries where they are buying their products. They are unaware of child, slave or sweatshop labor. They are not aware of environmentally sustainable methods so that the earth is not robbed of its minerals or left filled with pesticides and chemicals. It is too bad. When I returned from these two stores I immediately went to the internet and began a letter-writing campaign all my own, followed by a phone call to some of our larger fair trade companies to let them know what I experienced. Most people wouldn't care if they bought a carved giraffe from a fair trade company or a vendor on a street corner because they just don't know the long-range implications and how human beings are being dragged through the dirt. Do I blame them? I don't really blame the consumers because they are somewhat insulated by the many schemes we have in our country to keep business alive, the economy in an upward growth pattern and the real truth hidden. Who I really want to blame are the multi-national companies who have all gone overseas in order to keep their businesses growing, their costs low for employees and products, and the consumer buying. These companies have just lost their ethics and gone into a production frenzy with the children and poor caught in the teeth of the factories. Don't people understand what's really going on? Fair trade is one alternative way of doing business which will help people all over the world to survive. This is, however, only one alternative and I have given myself to it for the sake of these people trapped in the middle. We all can and should try and make a difference in the world. We have access to all kinds of international reports and stories from people who are living in these circumstances. Why don't we take the time to read about them? If I have a choice between reading a book, a newspaper, an article on the internet, why can't I try and find out what is happening somewhere else in the world besides my own backyard? Do we really believe that what we don't see won't hurt us? One amazing statistic from the United Nations is that 2.8 billion people (about half the world) are living in poverty to the tune of $2.00 a day or less. What is the other half doing about it?