Tonight I watched a Vicar of Dibley episode with my family. In it, the village united to end poverty in the "Third World." (MakePovertyHistory.org has more information about the specific campaign featured.) The show reminded me of another presentation I once saw, where impoverished children ate sun-dried mud patties to survive. Because the mud came from a riverbank downstream from a livestock farm that had no means of controlling runoff, harmful chemicals and animal waste were integral ingredients in every meal.
The following haiku is my response to the internal conflict that results from understanding how my Western lifestyle contributes to poverty in underdeveloped nations. It's difficult to think about saving the world when my own friends and family suffer from a lack of resources... but perhaps that's why it's also so important. After all, what stood between me and Poverty when my turn to be born arrived? What stands between us now? I'm not somehow different from the nineteen-year-old mother in Botswana who's dying of AIDS. In the end we're both just doing what's necessary to survive. At least, that's what I tell myself. Deep down I know there must be a better way.
* * * * *
I sell another
Gold chain necklace while she bakes
The manure-pie feast.
2 comments:
Honey this might be the most rude response you'll see, but you know who it is ;) Thou does not hold back on what I feel is true.
Think of it this way.? If you are currently working to save "your world" be it five, ten, or fifty plus people, it is still that many you are saving. Don't try to save the world as planet earth, just start with the world as yours truly, personal to you.
I hope that made some sense to you. Let me know either way?. I love you <3
Hey Yennivieve,
It doesn't sound rude. I agree with you to a degree, for sure. If I understand you correctly, you're saying that you don't necessarily need to travel overseas or do something spectacular in order to make an impact. You can change the world just by loving the people around you in everyday life. You may never reach everyone or even a lot of people, but you'll improve the lives of those five, ten, or fifty plus people in some way, and that should be enough because those people matter just as much as someone across the world that I've never met. Is that right? If so, I think you raise a good point and I appreciate your honesty. I think it's important to focus on what you can change and the people you've been given, rather than try to save the whole world (which no one can) and end up disregarding those closest to you in the process.
However, I still think it's important to find out how I can potentially improve the lives of those I may never meet who are less fortunate and/or don't enjoy the same freedoms as me. I agree with those who argue that as much as it's in their power to change things, people who have a lot are responsible for the wellbeing of those who don't have as much. That could be applied to America and poorer countries or just to me and a poor person I meet on the street who becomes one of my "five, ten, etc." Or, to a rich person and to my loved one who can't afford health care. Does that make any sense?
...I guess I meant the poem to be more about my inner turmoil than some grandiose notion that I could ever actually save the world. Because here I am - well, you know our family's situation - basically my loved ones are barely scraping by. And I hate that I have to work for a system that intentionally keeps others in poverty. Yet what exactly am I going to do about it? Quit my job? Stop driving a car? Make my own clothes and grow my own food from scratch? In the winter in Vermont when there's no sun or thawed soil? Boycott the necessities I rely on for survival?
So I do understand the practical side of things. I do want to love the people I have right here and now. I don't believe it's within my ability or even my responsibility to solve all the world's problems. Not alone, that is. But at the same time, the unfairness of life is wrenching. That's all I meant to capture in this poem.
I love you, too. <3
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