Small hands reach over to give me a simple Kenyan saltine cracker. She doesn’t have to speak a word, and somehow this message is the most powerful one I’ve ever encountered. In ten seconds, ten-year old Baraka teaches me what it means to give. She is young, skinny, and has no opportunity for education. Yet, she is hungry for opportunity, education, and for food. When our team brings simple snacks for the children, Baraka brings her share and splits it with me. She needs the sustenance so much more than me, but her first inclination is to forget herself and provide for another.
It’s no coincidence that “Baraka” means blessing or fortune in Swahili. That young girl is a blessing and fortune in the truest sense of the word. Although she didn’t have physical blessings and fortune in her life, she embodied blessing and fortune. I believe that fortune is tied to wealth, wealth is tied to abundance, and all of the above tied to attitude. If we base our personal fortune on physical things, we will never be satisfied and will always desire for more, to meet a new standard of enough. However, when individual wealth is tied to an attitude of abundance, then it’s possible to be content in the face of any circumstance. True giving comes from a heart of being content. This attitude should not be based on or swayed by standards of society. Figures like Baraka, Jesus Christ, and Mother Teresa motivate me to give. It does not matter if it is a child, a religious leader, or an elderly person, it is the giving attitude inside the person and the subsequent action that inspires me. When I travelled through Kenya in 2012, I saw poverty in front of my eyes, which I had prior only heard of and or seen in still photos. What I also saw was joy – manifested through giving – during my interactions with Kenyans. They gave their presence by saying hello and welcoming us into their country, even if to them we were strangers at the street corner. They gave their food by cooking plentiful meals and hosting us with great hospitality, despite having meager supplies and humble abodes. The Kenyans understood that need should be met by giving whatever you could; this could be helping a blind person navigate the streets, pulling over on the roadside to help push a car out of a pothole, or teaching a foreigner some basic Swahili. After I returned from Kenya to finish my last year of high school, I realized that Kenyans embraced giving by demonstrating that it starts now. In America I am often taught to plan and experiment, then implement when I know it will result in impact. While I always keep that in mind, I know that giving must start now and be done smartly. Someone who is constantly researching and keeping up with a social issue is more likely to care about it, give to it, and engage in solving it. As a student, I can only give so much of the limited amount of money I have, time that I also allocate towards studying, and energy that I also spend on getting involved with school activities. However, I know that if I am faithful in giving when I have just a little, I will also be faithful in giving when I have more. To remember what I learned about giving in Kenya, I fast on a normal basis. On the twentieth of each month, I spend 24 hours choosing not to eat food and instead read my journal to be reminded of my experiences, give the money I would have spent on food towards the charity I worked with, and research the latest news on the areas I was in. Instilling a habit of remembrance, gratitude, and giving allows this experience which happened 3 years to keep changing me to this day. The more that I build up this practice, the more I can make a greater impact in the future and inspire others to do the same. I give because Baraka gave me a lesson I’ll never forget.
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Where one is the only number. Where there is only one of every thing. There is one apple. You bite into it, and you savor sweet. There is one eagle. You watch it fly, and you see swift. There is one harp. You listen to its song, and you hear harmony. There is one candle. You put your hand near it, and you feel fiery fervor. There is one flower. You sniff its scent, and you smell spring’s splendor. There is just one, so you experience good for what it is. There is no second apple to compare which is sweeter. There is no falcon to fly beside the eagle and prove its superior speed. There are no other instruments to create an orchestra to drown out the sound of the lone harp. There is no other source of fire to compete with the candle. There are no other flowers in the garden to mix with the smell of this flower. Because a sweeter apple, a faster bird, another beautiful instrument, a bigger fire, and a differently scented flower do not invalidate the goodness that is in the original. The comparison that the latter is superior does not make the former inferior, more good does not correspond with bad. Goodness is good. Truth is truth. Nothing can shake that. Nor dispute that.
There is a world where the sweet apples grow together on a tree. Each one is a little different and each one has a different mouth to feed, and they nourish the world together. There is a world where the eagle is fast and the falcon is faster. Each bird is fast and its majesty is there for all of creation to see the majesty of the Creator. There is a world where there are many different instruments, all beautifully made and each producing beautiful harmony. Each instrument complements the next until as a whole, the individual harmonies create an excellent symphony, and so each becomes an instrument of bringing great enjoyment. There is a world where fire can be sustained by candle, firewood, fuel, et cetera. Each method is unique to the earlier, and each creates warmth, sometimes when an alternative couldn’t under the circumstances. There is a world where various flowers grow in the same garden. Each flower brings a different sweet smell, and when spring comes there is a different scent to be enjoyed with every step through the garden. There is a world where there is one you. And you are beautiful. There is a world with many of us. And when we recognize the beauty in the one, our thinking is beautiful. Is this world your world? Isn’t it interesting how when we don’t think things can change, we settle for less? We become fine with the injustices and allow them to be perpetuated. We decide that things are this way, were always this way, meant to be this way, and are best staying this way. There’s no better solution, so let’s just settle for what we have now. There’s no need for improvement, because there’s no way to fundamentally change things. It’s not worth it to try, because it won’t make a difference or it will take too long or it doesn’t matter because other people won’t change.
This is what happens all the time, we turn a blind eye. Or we complain and sit complacent. Or we get angry and break windows. Or we cry and list the unsolvable problems. Or we crucify others and find no fault in ourselves. Or we think about how to do something about the problems. This is what I try to focus on as I learn about how workers in foreign countries are exploited in factories and on farms, about their low wages and how they’re just going to drop lower out of competition from all corners, about how companies care more about hitting quotas than improving the standard of living for all people they serve - the people they provide products for and the people they provide jobs for. I know big business has a bad name for a reason. And I know things are complicated. I know there are worse systems than capitalism, and that this is the lesser evil. Churchill says something along the lines of capitalism being the best option for now, because there’s no better solution. Utopias are nice in theory, but people are selfish, so they aren’t going to work. Heaven is nice in theory, but is grand in reality, because it’s not created by human imagination even if that’s the only way we can try to understand it. Basically, it’s late, so I probably don’t know what I’m talking about. But all I’m concerned with is the fact that since college has begun a month ago, I have been utterly clueless regarding what I want to do with business. I know I want to pursue international business. I know I’m going to pursue a Mandarin track and take advantage of my heritage and background. And I know Kenya will always be on my heart. I’m just hoping these things will all collide into something beautiful, and I have hope they will. But always forever, I want to keep a grasp on the balance of the world.The complicated balance of lives grounded to the soil of the earth.I want to know the whole story, I want to understand. I want to hear from the biased and the passionate, I want to hear from the ones who think they can change the world, I want to hear from the ordinary, from the ones who don’t even understand. And I want to share a dream. A dream to make lives better, to give business a better name, to be transparent and honest, to put communication above competition. I don’t know how I’ll do it yet. But first, I don’t want to lose sight of this dream. One day I will envision it in the cavities of my brain. And it will pump through the chambers of my heart. And then I will see it before my very eyes. With all the glory to my Father. |
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July 2016
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