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We are spoiled beyond belief.
- Nov 10, 2008 at 10:46 AM
- By
- Comments (58) Total Views (1703) Everyone can see this journal post.
It seems nearly every time I watch Sesame Street these days, Grover visits Africa and they show the clip of the wretchedly poor children attending school. It breaks my heart every single time, and I think long and hard about how easy we have it here in our country and how badly we take our conveniences for granted.
The clip shows a woman with her baby strapped to her back, waking her young daughter up for school. The child has slept on the floor of a hut, and washes her feet from a bucket and then cleans her teeth with her finger from the same bucket. Her mother hands her lunch, a small amount of food wrapped in paper. Then the child walks barefoot to school, where dozens and dozens of other children are all crammed into one room and taught by one teacher. They learn to write using chalk and small pieces of blackboard. They are eager to learn.
The children do not have expensive, safety approved playground equipment. They jump en masse for fun. They wear worn clothing and few, if any, have shoes. They don't have nutritionist-approved meals in the school cafeteria, or computers in the library, or teacher aides or overhead projectors or textbooks or school budgets. They don't have the luxury of being finicky about their food.
I wish Americans would stop being such spoiled bitches about everything. Whine, bitch, moan and complain. We are so oblivious to how other people live their daily lives elsewhere in the world. We are petty and selfish and self-absorbed. We are luckier than we'll ever know.
A child watching that clip on Sesame Street may not realize the depth of poverty it portrays, but an adult should, and it should make an impact. One Christian phrase that always has resounded for me is that "if not but by the Grace of God, that would be me." Apply that sentiment to your own personal spiritualism or philosophy and it will go a long way to refreshing your compassion for those less fortunate.
Comments:
Great post!
i agree and remind my self when i get that "american mentality" when i feel that i need more but only want it cause somebody else has it...and then i eat some humble pie and realize i have a whole lot more than other people do and i am very very thankful for the things i have...i really wish more people realized they are spoiled and that no matter how bad you think your situation is it could ALWAYS be worse so just count your blessings and be happy for what you have!
The great thing is that "to whom much is given, much is expected". There are millions of ways we as moms can get involved, locally, domestically, and globally. Don't let that moment of guilt - or better yet - insight to pass without finding a way to get involved...and get the kids involved!
Intlmama , you took the words right out of my mouth. One of our new charitable donations this month (yes, this month) was to a local organization called Open Door Mission. They provide a soup kitchen, formal holiday meals, and, among other things, pack bagged lunches every Friday for the homeless.
When I called to inquire about this project, I was informed that they had plenty of money to buy supplies. But not nearly enough volunteers. So this Friday, Alanna and I will take our serviceable and warm winter coats, as we go to prepare and deliver sack lunches to the homeless. I can't think of a better way to teach her about the need to serve others.
I'm quite certain she will get as much out of it as I.
I totally agree with this post. We are blessed so much to be able to live the way we do. Things Americans think are "necessities" are actually luxuries. If we had to live one day in a third world country, we would realize that.
Sometimes it's hard to see our blessings, but on days when I start to get down on our finances (we live on a very tight budget and make our bills each month with not much to spare) I seriously say to myself, "Think of people who don't even have it as good as we do." We have a good, safe home, we have cars, we have food to eat and clothes to wear. We have government resources to fall back on if we can't afford the basics. We even have family who would help all they could.
Yes, I agree...we have it very good here.
I think another thing that we can do as a country is not assume that because people don't have what we have they are less fortunate than us, in many places not having shoes is not a problem... in many places the people are a lot healthier than we are in the U.S. and western world, though they don'; have nearly as many conveniences or money as we have here. I think seeing things in terms of real necessity, the things that really matter is a good way to put things into perspective. People who go about their day in health and happiness don't miss conveniences that they've never had... if we realize that different cultures have different traditions and standards that work for them, we could more easily understand the suffering that exists in places where the system is not working for the people. Maybe then we could focus our aid and charity to places that really need help, as well as our own country, where many are suffering in poverty and sickness as well. Instead of percieved suffering that is based on standards of living that we project onto other cultures that are fine w/o our input or have the resources to solve their problems on their own and in ways that work w/ their particular systems.
here! here!! Thank you for the inspiration. I needed it.
We should definitely appreciate what we have materially, and give of our possessions willingly. But, the poorest people of the world are spiritually and morally way ahead of us. Mother Teresa said it so profoundly in 1994- here's a link to her speech at the National Prayer Breakfast in 1994 -http://www.priestsforlife.org/brochures/mtspeech.html
There are many things that are more important than possessions.
We do have everything. Were lucky and your right we forget how lucky we a are.
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great post- i feel exactly what you are writing