Doubt, and Faith

There is a lot on my mind lately.  It all seems to swim around in there, enough to keep me distracted but nothing pronounced enough to really put my finger on.  Very hard to characterize.  Maybe my brain is imitating the seasons, which are hinting at winter but not quite there yet.

One thing I am preoccupied with at the moment is the suffering and lack of resources poor people face.  In Carleton County we have lots of individuals and families who don't have warm clothes or food for winter, and who do not have jobs with dignity.  I accept that this is 'the way it is' but I certainly don't like it.  There IS enough in this world to go around, and the fact that things are so unequally distributed hurts makes me angry sometimes.

At the same time, I had the tremendous fortune to see Jacob Deng speak at Fusion on Saturday night.  He is one of the "Lost Boys" of Sudan who left during the midst of a civil war.  He never saw his parents again, and now as a refugee living in Halifax, is doggedly working to improve the lives of Sudanese in his home village.

Listening to him talk was eerie:  he is only two years older than I am, and as he spoke, I tried to picture Debec in the middle of a civil war. I imagined leaving there with the knowledge that my family members would likely be killed.  He was seven years old when he left. But he stood in front of the small crowd and talked about how urgent the need is for primary education in his village, how people have the right (and the need) to make something of themselves.

Like people in Carleton County, they need basic resources, training and education in order to be able to build a better life for themselves. Different place, but the same story in many ways.  I work a lot with children and I see the tremendous potential in them, like little seeds.  I work in community organizing, and I see how progress is made slowly, like a garden that increases in productivity each year.  And when I stop and think about the obstacles faced by so many good people the world over, I honestly think it's a miracle we even have a "society" at all.  I guess it's a testament that human beings are social, like our primate cousins.

But at the same time, I would like to see a society with more cooperation, with more caring and less materialism.  And I'd really like to see laws that keep some people from dominating those who are vulnerable, both physically and economically.  Maybe someday.  In the meantime, I will do what I can, build peace in my own life and home and encourage others to do the same. Nobody can do everything, but everybody can do something.