So, when things were really low a month ago, when I didn’t have much of anything, I actually wrote about it on my blog here. That wasn’t easy. But, I did it.
Doing so, resulted in all sorts of reactions. Strangers from all around the world wrote in to check on me, to send me money, to buy some of my art, to say encouraging words. Good friends lent me money and wrote in, sent me good wishes, called to check on me. I guess the word ‘good’ is redundant there isn’t it? Good friends are the one’s that are there for you when things get rough! Man… grattitude!
Of course, lots of people didn’t say anything at all. Then, others, well, one person, got mad at me. I am sure other people were thinking the same as her– I admire her for her courage to stand up and express and tell me what she was thinking.
Basically, she said something like this: “What right do you Russell, a white guy from a rich nation, have to be Hungry in a country where so many are already hungry, poor and vastly more impoverished?”
Its a good point isn’t it? It certainly shot me down that day when I got her e-mail. Indeed, I had been thinking and feeling the same things. Feeling shame and stupidity. I am a complete fool? Or maybe there is something to this experience. Beleive me, I was thinking it, her e-mail was rather redundant!
The judgement involves a geopolitical separation consciousness. You see, I am a human being, just everyone else here on the planet and just like the folks who go without food on the streets in Manila. I am just like them, and they are just like me. We both get hungry. We are connected through our humanity. And I, Russell, who was simply born in a different part of that planet where there is snow and forests, gets hungry in the same way, and deserves sustenance in the same way in the same way as anyone else in Philippines.
In fact, that particular consciousness, that equalizing empathy, is the only thing that can ever enable really solving the problem. It takes experiences like these for “first world” people, like me, conditioned by the weight of the rusted, heavy, darkened world views of religions and ideologies to feel the oneness once again. There are many people who go their whole lives in my country (and in the Phlipinnes) never wanting a meal. It is a profoundly humbling experience to go through being hungry. It cuts through the ego and gets past on the geopolitical clutter that makes it insanely easy to walk by the hungry people on the street.
In fact, that particular consciousness, that equalizing empathy, is the only thing that can ever enable really solving the problem. It takes experiences like these for first world people, like me, conditioned by the weight of the rusted, heavy, darkened world views of religions and ideologies to feel the oneness once again. There are many people who go their whole lives never wanting a meal. It is a profoundly humbling experience to go through being hungry. It cuts through the ego and gets past on the geopolitical clutter that makes it insanely easy to walk by the hungry people on the street.
And, what is wrong with my experience? Life is a perfect process of bringing us the things we need to evolve. I bought many people food when I was in Manila, and you know what… I guarantee you I will buy for many many more. And, althought, I may have gone through so low periods, I have categorically ensured that I have paid everything. In fact, I have spent thousands of dollars in the Philipines now– I feel like I one of the major financial investor in the village where I am now staying! My money goes direct to the artisans, food growers, and locals here. I am quite proud of that. As an artist who receives sales and donations from around the world I feel like a geo-economic Johnny Appleseed, sows dollar seeds that come from all around the world into local, real world, non-corporate, community.
