toss it out the window.

blog number three of being back in america.

it's been about 11 days since i've been here.

i don't feel as much culture shock as people seem to think i do. i've never really had to deal with culture shock upon my returns to the States. how or why, i'm not sure but i just kind of seem to slide into wherever i'm at. i'm pretty sure i enjoy this. i do my best to embrace all the good in a culture and do what i can do to perhaps 'deal' with or 'adapt' to that which is viewed as bad.

thankful doesn't begin to describe how gracious i am for my time not spent in america. not only have i been able to do what my heart has always enjoyed doing [helping those who need it in a felt way, seeking good] but i am been blessed with an expanded worldview.

i heard a story this past week about how a guy stood up in a forum about world hunger and said something along the lines of how he ate dinner that day and he wasn't hungry and so everything was fine. hopefully what that boy said doesn't strike the average person as 'normal' or even 'comprehendible' but seriously. how do you really disconnect the two worlds? what is it that makes the worlds of 'us' and 'them' so appealing. i think for one thing, it portrays the selfishness that engulfs some of the western world but more than that, it's just plain craziness in my head.

lets face it. unfortunately the comfortable world of 'us' would not happen without the very uncomfortable world of 'them'. most things that we do to enjoy ourselves happens at the expense of 'them'. we exploit them to the highest degree and try to justify it all in our minds somehow.

now i don't have solid answers or solutions to problems like that but i do know that by making conscious decisions to be more aware of how everything that i do as a consumer effects someone else, somewhere else in the world, i am doing my part. i don't want to sit here and point out the spec in others eyes, when i'm avoiding the one in my own eye. we are all responsible for what we know and what we've experienced and what we've seen. sometimes it's hella hard to embrace and connect the two worlds but it's a venture and path that is well worth all of our time. because as long as we allow ourselves to live in a world of 'us' and 'them', we are not doing our part in 'making the world a better place'. we are furthering the problem and widening the ever present gap between the first world and the third world.

the third world may not have the material riches that the west has, but rest assured they have an abundant beauty that cannot be taken away. sometimes the hardest things in life require one to life the veil in front of their eyes and take a look at the world around them. the real world, not the one they've been taught to see.

i know this blog may not have made a lot of sense nor followed one topic but it's what came out. apart from margo, [: i don't even know who [if anyone] reads this anymore. i hope that your new year is going well. it's my hope that this year we all expand our willingness to learn and change for the good.

be well friends.