Bless the Children

Sometimes I am so amazed by the younger generations.

This video shows a well spoken girl doing her best to dumbfound the U.N. and give us all cause to stop and think about what values we teach, and which ones we actually live.







It brings to my mind the things we teach, but do not follow.

Sharing, peace, avoiding conflict, working together, etc are all things taught in school, but not followed by adults and governments.

I often laugh at how we are taught to admire our country's freedoms and democracy, yet political actions and protests are stigmatized. I laugh that most of us are immigrants in this country, in that only a few hundred years ago, yet we pass judgments on newer immigrants. I laugh when we give lip service to world democracy, yet we do not behave democratically in the world. I laugh, only because it is more fun than crying. World democracy is made by being democratic in the world; peace, by being peaceful; health, by being healthy; sustainability, by being sustainable.

What has amazed me by my travels are there are many realities and truths to live by, often no better, nor worse, just different. As humans, we tend to live egocentrically. It's like Mark Twain's "War Prayer", in which a group of parishoners are praying for their sons to win in the war. The "Dark Angel" comes and shows them the other side of the world where the enemy's families are praying for their soldiers. Both sides, equally convinced in their God and righteousness. It's like that on many levels. We are so caught up in our own reality we don't have any perspective.

I just read that the majority of people in India still excrete in open fields. They don't even have outhouses or composting toilets. While on the subject, most of the world doesn't even have toilet paper. That I am grateful for, because it likely saves a lot of trees! And frankly, cleaning with water is a lot better system, where water is available.

We often here that much of the world lives on only a few US dollars per day, and think, "poor them". What that statistic doesn't show is that in much of the world, one can afford to live on much less because things cost much less there, and people don't necessarily collect material stuff. For instance, in India, I once bought a weeks worth of antibiotics, plus probiotics for less than $2 USD. The dollar figure doesn't show standard of living, it shows exchange rates. Granted, we would be amazed at most of the world's standard of living. And, that being said, standard of living doesn't necessarily relate to quality of life. Inner peace, loving friends and family cost nothing.

What excites me in all of this, is how far money from "wealthy" nations could go in "less wealthy" nations. If we took the money that we spent on a few plastic things doomed for the landfill... we could feed a family for a day (the per ca pita yearly income in India is under $500 USD). And what really excites me is what if we took the money it costs to make a bomb, and instead put that towards good will gifts with our neighbors? Especially in dealing with terrorists... I mean... take Afghanistan and 9/11. Well, admittedly, I'm assuming that Bush was correct and that Afghani terrorists were responsible, even though it was apparently Saudi's on the planes. So we all know that even in our own country, a democracy, the government's and military's actions do not reflect all the citizens. Consider, that terrorists are even less representative of their home populations. So what if we had sent gifts of food or other necessities to Afghanistan in 2001, and worked on making friends there. When you live in a neighborhood, don't you make gifts and try to make friends with your neighbors.

That's what really excites me about all this, is how much opportunity and hope there is for change. I believe all nations have their gifts. In the USA we have the gift of individuality and personal freedom, which has it's pluses and minuses. It's great that people can be themselves, but we have also lost a lot of family and community structure. In India, family and community are very strong, yet it is hard for individuals to be themselves. Another gift from India is inner peace in spite of hardship and lack of material stuff. In the US, we have "stuff", but also a lot of discontent. I've seen kids in India joyfully and exuberantly kicking an old plastic water bottle around... the best toy ever.

The world is growing,changing and we are all learning together. Things have changed drastically, quickly. Only a few hundred years ago, world trade happened along the silk route. There were wars over the spice islands. Now we have wars over oil, and world trade happens on the internet. The only wars over spices are corporate. Now, for better or worse, small villages in Nepal and Laos, for example, have satellite TV and cell phones.

Never has the opportunity to share on all levels been so great. Never has there been such a global forum for the children to come together, so that we might come together for future children.