A Sewing Lesson

The other night a few friends and I began to discuss education, ingenuity, and culture. How we as Americans are falling behind in education and intellect, yet how we continue to produce ingenuity- the new, the creative, the inspired. And we are puzzled and we commend ourselves. And it’s true, there are great minds here, but that is not what divides us. There is genius in every culture, in every race and in the expanse of the major religions. There are those who stand apart, because we can rightfully distinguish them as Great.

What we create, others perfect. What we envision and cultivate, others produce rapidly and with excellence. We create functionality and it is genius. But why? How do we continue to lead the world in progress and development, in simply foreword thinking? In the midst of a great recession, where true, Basic Need is Here; we are still prone to ingenuity. It is the fabric of our social character to dream and to aspire to something greater, because it’s possible. So we dream, whether individually or corporately, we strive. For in countries like India, mobility is not reality, it’s not even an ideal. There is no safety, no cushion in their financial state and so they look to be sustained and the solution is work. To work longer, to worker harder, and to work younger. It is in that same longer and harder and younger that we allotted the time to creative.

But look

things are changing. And in this one classroom hut, mobility is being institutionalized. This is REAL. It takes little to change the world. But it takes the most valuable possessions we own; our time and our money.

So Give. Whether you come or you donate, you’re not giving just HOPE, you’re giving New Life. There is no excuse, really. There is opportunity to do Good. Every moment is a decision to either do Good and in that choice, we are either sewing ourselves more tightly to that Good or we are separating ourselves even further from it.

Charity

The questions that surface when we are approached by Charity are numerous and varied. It is something personal, it requires us to think and give beyond ourselves. Because charity does not expect a payback, so we give with intent. And we expect results, we expect good to come from our effort. We expect generosity to be repaid with the currency of progress, of development, of health and wellness, with a smile and with unspeakable gratitude… .

But what I’ve learned is that often times our expectations fall far below what we envision. Its what we read about, its what we [only after the fact and once we have finally seen to calculated results] admire in the silent giver, the unnoticed servant.

Hosted a little fundraiser this weekend with some friends.

Here are some favorites from the photobooth

Thanks Everyone for the Support. All funds have gone

to our Project Rhino Learning Centers

This week and for the last few months I have been plagued by the question of uncertainty, what happens when a student walks away from our learning centers? We often call them ‘drop outs’, the connotation of which expresses one who has given up, who has thrown in the towel, one who is ungrateful and lacks motivation. And I would have said the same thing, but now I know their story, a story that explains why until now they have had no education… how do you communicate to a child or a family the Need for education and its fruitfulness when a child’s basic NEEDS are neglected?, but we have to Try, its the only way change will be come a discipline. And this why I am proud to say that we are dedicated to the Holistic treatment. It is remarkable to communicate to a community that they will be given education... yes, but that they will be given healthcare and nutrition, simply for showing up. That's the fun part of my job!

What I know of our students is their dedication and their gratefulness almost to the point of disbelief. “why?” they ask. Why would anyone care and what have I done to deserve this? And then, once we have satisfied the “why’s”, comes the “how?”. How do I balance this? How do I attend school, excel and still work to help feed my family and myself. How do I focus when my stomach pants for nourishment and I am sick from the leaky roof that drips and floods my room at night, that dares me to sleep and infests my body with impurity?

The struggles, the barriers are not common, they are not even believable until you go and you sit with a child. You sit across from their home, a home in the slums. Another terrible word and another misrepresented connotation. It is not dirt and grime or even scary. But within the walls of the slums there is genius and there is strength and there is the greatest display of endurance and resilience I have ever known, and I expect to ever know.

So, is there Hope? Absolutely. For if we refuse to hope then we diminish the ability to act and it is in movement that miracles take place. It is a partnership, a marriage of sorts, because without the two, we hobble and we stumble. We must believe, we must have faith and in that we have the confidence to Go, to Do. And it is in the doing that we find structure to our Faith.

I never knew the true value of education until now, for in our society if you are simply talented or hardworking, you will succeed. Yet to be given education freely, to be expected to participate in school and to be pursued. That is beautiful.

The obstacles might be many, the mountains of struggle seem too daunting to climb, and those who expect you to fail are a plenty. Yet no one can take away your right to education and therefore your right to live well… This is what we want for our learning center students and this is what we want to institute among the poor and disadvantaged communities of India. May our students know that it is their human right to pursue education, to deepen their understanding of the world in its fullness. And may we as administrators and teachers and leadership demand excellence and honesty and integrity in that which we teach and the knowledge we encourage our students to pursue.

Pieces

I sat with a good friend yesterday. Over dinner, we chatted for hours, those conversations that change who we are and in response the world changes, because forevermore we will approach it differently, a little more tenderly, and with an awareness of the other, calculating in the lives of those we have just come to know, whose circumstances humble us and where are only response is gratefulness.

Just some of my favorites from our Learning Centers

It seems funny now that I am back, I have had no shocking transition or acclamation process, yet in conversations such as those from yesterday I am coming to apply what I have learned in my time in India. Its like my 7 weeks of observation and engagement left me with pieces. Like a puzzle, my heart and mind and soul are a scattering of unidentifiable pieces. Yet as I am back these pieces are coming together. I think it will take a lifetime of piecing together, of rearranging, yet the picture will be made clear and in so doing I will be FULL. For in the perfecting of the puzzle, I will reconcile what it means to BE here in the land of plenty, of ingenuity, of progress and accessibility. Where all things are possible, where dreams become reality. I will reconcile who I am as one privileged with who I have come to admire, those who live without privilege and in so doing make life beautiful, because it is not about the menial, but it is about staking claim on what is real, what is worthy to die for. For faith, for family, for love, and for goodness.

I wont argue that ignorance is not bliss, it is, most of the time. To be guarded from pain, from heartache and need, to be blinded from suffering is quite a nice place to be. But there is only so long that we can live without this knowledge, without this understanding and yet still be complete and yet still be good stewards of that which we have.

Katabon Learning Center Students [December 2010]

I will stand and I will argue and I will fight for this great country, because that is what we are GREAT. But we are not perfect… we are far from it. All is at our disposal and all is accessible. We define what is good and what is bad, what is success and what is failure. We establish the movement, spark the revolutions. And it is in this, this role as leader that we have great responsibility. As a country we recite and claim to attend to some of the most beautiful and idealistic notions of human rights. To be free, simply for Being. To be heard, simply because you have a voice. To be granted the right of happiness, simply because we recognize it has a human entitlement.