Saturday

I sit and drink my coffee, doing what I have struggled to do for a while now. Quietly read. Uninterrupted, except for when my pear and raspberry bread arrives. I am struck by three things I have read in the past week. A friend emailed me some observations he had while recently visiting Myanmar. He has travelled there many times in the past 20 years. Something he said struck a chord with me.

While I could hardly blame Myanmar people for wanting a better life, I fear they will ... turn into yet another materialistic society. People who had very little and were ready to share are now having a little more, which they have no intention to let go!

This morning David showed me a news article from yesterday's paper. An Afghan family living in a displaced persons camp have just buried their three month old son. He had frozen to death. The father described how his son was breasted, how they family lay together under only a couple of blankets to keep warm. His son cried and cried through the night because of the cold. By morning he had died. I cannot fathom a situation where I am trying to keep my family alive with only a blanket and limited food supply.

I think of my own comfort. Yes we have to stick to a budget. We bemoan the cost of housing but we still manage luxuries we could probably live without.

The book I am currently reading is about a man who found himself lost in the mountains while attempting to climb K2, He stumbled across an impoverished village in Pakistan and was cared for by those who lived there. He was immediately welcomed and provided with tea, shelter and blankets. He Maraini who in 1958 when he visited Askole village in Pakistan, "...all this gives rise to a question.  Isn't it better to live in ignorance of everything - asphalt and macadam, vehicles, telephones, television - to live in bliss without knowing it?" (pg 30) 

(I understood this sentiment. When visiting Mizoram some years ago I felt the peace of having no baggage. Nowhere to be urgently, not structured by time and others expectations.  It is easy to be enamoured with the lifestyle when you know you will return to your 'creature cumforts' back home in a short while...)

So touched by their generosity he desired to return their kindness. He has done so by building schools in remote villages and training teachers.

I guess my point is, why do I place so much emphasis on gathering material possessions?Why, when I have much, do I hold tighter to what is "mine". The more we have, the tighter the grip. The less we have, the more we share.  It is something that bothers me often, I stop and wonder at it all, and then am drawn back into the imbalance of wants and needs in life.