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.