I was busy writing yesterday. Even wrote a real blog post, but only because I was inspired to do so. I'm still sticking to my 500 a day.
Yesterday after I wrote the one about sacrifice I was taught a bit about 3 kinds of sacrifice considered in theology circles. Atonement (seeking forgiveness through action), Scapegoating (blaming 1 entity for all the problems in society thereby relieving the society of any real responsibility to remedy the problems) and Swtiching (taking on the suffering of another as a kind of martyr)
I don't know if I got it right, but that's what I remember of that discussion. I'm not a doctoral student in Religious Studies, after all. I'm just a regular Christian struggling with how to be a good one. That's all.
Speaking of being a good Christian, the blog I wrote yesterday was in response to to 2 posts I saw on Facebook. One with 10 reasons not to become a missionary and the other was a short video expressing outrage over the mission work in Uganda promoting intolerance and even hate. My father used to say I was jaded. I guess I am. Not much surprises me anymore.
Well, I take that back. I am surprised when someone I thought was different completely fooled me. I always thought I was a good judge of character. One thing about trying to be less judgmental, though, is that judging someone's character is one of the "judge-y" things we have to lose. And that opens us up to surprises, both good and bad, so in the end, it's worth it.
I'm surprised at what's happening in my country, but I guess the good thing is that it yanks the stool of perceived moral high ground out from underneath me. I used to think America had it going on, if we were on the wrong path, I believed we'd be straightened out. I believed in our processes. Or at least our people. I guess we're like any other developing country now. Or maybe...let me think...what's that saying? Having money doesn't mean you have class. Yes. Like that. Sickening.
I think Oscar Wilde said that America is the only country that transitioned from barbarism to decadence with no civilizing in the middle. How astute!
I love my country. I always will. I don't love it for what it is or even what it was, but I love it for what it can be. The foundation is there, even though sledgehammers and dynamite have weakened it. Our multiracial society of immigrants and dreamers is there. The dream is there.
And so is the fight.
Michael Jackson said "I'm a lover not a fighter". I used to like a good fight, or argument rather, but nowadays, I guess it's because I'm old, I don't care about playing with people who lose their tempers with other people and scream. I've had enough of that. I'm happy to have serious discussions and dialogue with people who think differently from me, but not if it's acceptable to yell and scream and point fingers. (I watched a video clip of an interview on The Daily Show and the person kept pointing at the interviewer. It was very rude, unnecessary and showed a serious lack of self-control.) Life is too short for that nonsense.
Really, we never know how long or short life is going to be, but why take chances and waste our time?
574
At the Foot of Arjuno
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
In Response...
I was on Facebook for no more than 10 minutes before these two items loaded into my newsfeed. One posted by a friend and the other by a page.
10 Reasons Not to Become a Missionary
Religious Missionaries Spread Homophobic Hate in Uganda
The topics in the first article should probably be discerned in the process to become a missionary. If those topics aren't discussed in detail and thoroughly worked through, I'd have to believe the pre-leave training is rather worthless. However, the post did make me think immediately of 10 Reasons to leave the paid profession of being a missionary. Here are my 10.
1. Do not stay in any situation in which the relationship is one sided. You go to serve, to help, and to build relationship. If the receiving body has different ideas on your purpose, if you can't be reassigned, maybe you should leave. The position is based on reciprocity and relationship. If it doesn't exist, how can you serve?
2. If the purpose of your being there is to provide a feather in the status cap of the receiving body rather than to fill the position in the job description, if you can't get a reassignment, maybe you should leave.
3. If the receiving body isn't honest with you and uses you as a playing piece in some game that does not serve God or even match the job description for your position and you can't get reassigned, maybe you should leave.
4. If the receiving body is more interested in you performing in stereotypical ways that have always been the way missionaries have behaved, i.e. Western privilege and attitude of cultural superiority, if you can't get reassigned, maybe you should leave.
5. If the relationship between the sending body and receiving body is not based on mutual respect, transparency and accountability, and you can't get reassigned, maybe you should leave.
6. If the situation is beginning to be stressful and manipulative and you have no outlet for counsel or mediation, you should leave if you can't get reassigned.
7. If you find that your presence is to reinforce norms established during mission work of a past era, i.e. Colonial, and you can't get reassigned, maybe you should leave.
8. If the work/service that you are asked to do is in direct conflict with the ethics of your profession and you can't get reassigned, maybe you should leave.
9. If the attitude expected of you is based on a conservative view of Christianity and you are a progressive Christian, and you can't get reassigned, maybe you should leave.
10. If you find yourself in a position in which you have to be dishonest with the people supporting you because you're not permitted to do the work that they're paying for you to do, and you can't get reassigned, maybe you should leave.
Unfortunately, because of the hell fire and damnation battle cry of missionaries during the Colonial era, many Christian churches abroad are still locked in the ideology of that time. Western ways of old are the "right" ways. There is a "pure" religion. Pictures of the blonde-haired blue eyed Jesus abound. Contextualization is not Christian. Basically, anything that does not reinforce the punitive and sacrificial aspects of this perception of "pure" Christianity is heretical. People who sided with the Colonialists usually had a higher status than other people. Therefore, the status associated with Christianity is very high in some places. Status = power. People with power don't want to give it up, you know.
Progressive Christianity is not only about gay marriage and similar, it is based on a more LOVE based interpretation of the Bible. Less punitive. Less literal and more contextual. Less rule-oriented. And more empowering towards marginalized and outcast people.
That perspective does not go over very well in places that use Christianity as a means to keep people in line by selectively enforcing traditional and social values or even as a way of elevating status.
So the second link above is about the hate pumped into Uganda by right-wing conservative missionaries. I don't know why people are shocked about this. It's much easier for right-wingers to get funding to go abroad than progressive Christians. Right-wingers love to impose their beliefs on others and "evangelizing the natives" by teaching right from wrong and good from bad is right up their simple minded alley. The mindset of the Colonial era is alive and well in the 21st century.
Sounds pretty dreary, doesn't it? I'm sure that not all mission workers are incorrectly matched with their assignments, but when it happens, it's really a nasty situation. There are progressive Christians all over the world, but very few of them have the resources to push for the changes they seek against the moneyed conservative Christians who still wield the power.
The ugly side of mission work that we rarely hear about involves those who leave for service and support those systems of injustice. It can be hard to eschew a status based on "White is right" and therefore hard for someone in that position to NOT live the life of privilege, riches and even leisure such an unearned status grants. An American salary in many former colonies, such as Uganda and even Indonesia, allows for a quality of life that is absolutely impossible in the US.
So. I could write a book about this and still am not sure where to begin, but the fact is, being a missionary is not just going abroad to share the love of God that we know through Christ. It is a constant transitioning between cultures, between different corporate climates, language, what's accepted and what's not, what Christianity means, what is the most loving way to serve, and especially how to keep everybody's egos, cultural and personal out of the mix.
It's very arrogant to assume that just because an entity professes Christianity that they practice in the same ways. Yes, we all should be the Body of Christ, but as those of us from the US know (and need to remember when we think of doing ANYTHING abroad), the rift between conservative Christians and progressive Christians is not just a US thing. It's everywhere.
And we need to really make sure that we're putting our eggs in the right baskets.
10 Reasons Not to Become a Missionary
Religious Missionaries Spread Homophobic Hate in Uganda
The topics in the first article should probably be discerned in the process to become a missionary. If those topics aren't discussed in detail and thoroughly worked through, I'd have to believe the pre-leave training is rather worthless. However, the post did make me think immediately of 10 Reasons to leave the paid profession of being a missionary. Here are my 10.
1. Do not stay in any situation in which the relationship is one sided. You go to serve, to help, and to build relationship. If the receiving body has different ideas on your purpose, if you can't be reassigned, maybe you should leave. The position is based on reciprocity and relationship. If it doesn't exist, how can you serve?
2. If the purpose of your being there is to provide a feather in the status cap of the receiving body rather than to fill the position in the job description, if you can't get a reassignment, maybe you should leave.
3. If the receiving body isn't honest with you and uses you as a playing piece in some game that does not serve God or even match the job description for your position and you can't get reassigned, maybe you should leave.
4. If the receiving body is more interested in you performing in stereotypical ways that have always been the way missionaries have behaved, i.e. Western privilege and attitude of cultural superiority, if you can't get reassigned, maybe you should leave.
5. If the relationship between the sending body and receiving body is not based on mutual respect, transparency and accountability, and you can't get reassigned, maybe you should leave.
6. If the situation is beginning to be stressful and manipulative and you have no outlet for counsel or mediation, you should leave if you can't get reassigned.
7. If you find that your presence is to reinforce norms established during mission work of a past era, i.e. Colonial, and you can't get reassigned, maybe you should leave.
8. If the work/service that you are asked to do is in direct conflict with the ethics of your profession and you can't get reassigned, maybe you should leave.
9. If the attitude expected of you is based on a conservative view of Christianity and you are a progressive Christian, and you can't get reassigned, maybe you should leave.
10. If you find yourself in a position in which you have to be dishonest with the people supporting you because you're not permitted to do the work that they're paying for you to do, and you can't get reassigned, maybe you should leave.
Unfortunately, because of the hell fire and damnation battle cry of missionaries during the Colonial era, many Christian churches abroad are still locked in the ideology of that time. Western ways of old are the "right" ways. There is a "pure" religion. Pictures of the blonde-haired blue eyed Jesus abound. Contextualization is not Christian. Basically, anything that does not reinforce the punitive and sacrificial aspects of this perception of "pure" Christianity is heretical. People who sided with the Colonialists usually had a higher status than other people. Therefore, the status associated with Christianity is very high in some places. Status = power. People with power don't want to give it up, you know.
Progressive Christianity is not only about gay marriage and similar, it is based on a more LOVE based interpretation of the Bible. Less punitive. Less literal and more contextual. Less rule-oriented. And more empowering towards marginalized and outcast people.
That perspective does not go over very well in places that use Christianity as a means to keep people in line by selectively enforcing traditional and social values or even as a way of elevating status.
So the second link above is about the hate pumped into Uganda by right-wing conservative missionaries. I don't know why people are shocked about this. It's much easier for right-wingers to get funding to go abroad than progressive Christians. Right-wingers love to impose their beliefs on others and "evangelizing the natives" by teaching right from wrong and good from bad is right up their simple minded alley. The mindset of the Colonial era is alive and well in the 21st century.
Sounds pretty dreary, doesn't it? I'm sure that not all mission workers are incorrectly matched with their assignments, but when it happens, it's really a nasty situation. There are progressive Christians all over the world, but very few of them have the resources to push for the changes they seek against the moneyed conservative Christians who still wield the power.
The ugly side of mission work that we rarely hear about involves those who leave for service and support those systems of injustice. It can be hard to eschew a status based on "White is right" and therefore hard for someone in that position to NOT live the life of privilege, riches and even leisure such an unearned status grants. An American salary in many former colonies, such as Uganda and even Indonesia, allows for a quality of life that is absolutely impossible in the US.
So. I could write a book about this and still am not sure where to begin, but the fact is, being a missionary is not just going abroad to share the love of God that we know through Christ. It is a constant transitioning between cultures, between different corporate climates, language, what's accepted and what's not, what Christianity means, what is the most loving way to serve, and especially how to keep everybody's egos, cultural and personal out of the mix.
It's very arrogant to assume that just because an entity professes Christianity that they practice in the same ways. Yes, we all should be the Body of Christ, but as those of us from the US know (and need to remember when we think of doing ANYTHING abroad), the rift between conservative Christians and progressive Christians is not just a US thing. It's everywhere.
And we need to really make sure that we're putting our eggs in the right baskets.
Monday, October 14, 2013
500 Words a Day (2)
This morning I awoke from a record breaking 6 hour night of sleep to feeding baby kittens, cleaning the kitchen from a late night cooking adventure (tofu balls, sauteed greens and rice - and yes, it was DELICIOUS), washing the kitty blankets and accessories, prepping the intimates for washing later, and accidentally breaking a glass saucer (whoops!) and sweeping it up with care.
Sometimes I wonder how in the world I ever got anything done when I worked a "regular" job. At least I know now why my house usually looked as if a tornado hit it and why on a normal day, I was ass and elbows. Unless I wasn't. Stop or go. No messing around in the middle for me.
Today is a day that I won't leave the house. It is a sacred day for Muslims that commemorates Abraham's journey to the mountaintop, son and knife in hand. The day is marked by mass religious offerings of goats and cows, mostly. The entire process is prayerful and the majority of the meat is given to the poor. When a young student explained it to me, he made it sound beautiful. Truly religious people want to help the poor.
When I was little and in the car on the way to my Grandmother's house, I saw a side of cow being hoisted up into a barn loft. I was traumatized and then teased about it. If at all possible, I will not eat meat. Fish and chicken if I have to; meaning I need the nutrients because I can't get it anywhere else. Through smirking grins from my co-workers where I was first assigned to "teach English" here, it was joked I must be Hindu because I will not eat cow. Oh well. Of course I would be Hindu because I didn't represent anything else that made sense to them.
Anyway.
So. Sacrifices and offerings. As I was washing dishes I was thinking about that. I guess if your God is mean and hostile, it would be necessary to soothe Him with gifts. The Old Testament is FULL of sacrifice stories.
In this day and age, meat is mass marketed, shot up with steroids, chickens are stacked on top of one another with clipped beaks...in short, rarely do any of us have the opportunity to connect with the manner in which our dinners are prepared for the table.
To pray, give thanks and share the nutrition we receive from animals is a nice change from an industrialized meat market. Yuck.
But back to sacrifices.
Maybe I can say that the Muslim community views sacrifice in that way, to pray, give thanks and share.
In the Christian community, however, there's often a different take on what it means to sacrifice. Too often it seems that it's necessary to endure suffering, as Jesus did. That means that we are to endure being mistreated. One can almost gain a pious and righteous happiness when subjected to more suffering than others. (Adeline Hulot, Cousin Bette by Honore de Balzac, springs to mind) It makes one more devout. Suffering can mean foregoing your own will, wants, goals and dreams to accommodate the expectations of someone else. This can even mean enduring an abusive relationship, whether work or personal (friendships and marriages, specifically)
For me, Jesus suffered for us. He took our sins with Him to the cross. We are washed clean. I don't believe that God wants us to suffer and endure mistreatment. Just the opposite. We are to pray, give thanks and share. Pray without ceasing. Give thanks for every little thing. Share the love, grace and forgiveness that God gives to us. So sacrifice?
Even though God loves us and wants us to be happy (Benjamin Franklin supposedly quipped that beer is proof of that!), perhaps we should sacrifice something, but I don't believe that we are supposed to sacrifice as if we were the Son of man.
We should sacrifice our greed. Our arrogance. Our self-centered consumerism. Our love of material wealth The privilege of status, earned and unearned. The desire to dictate to others how they should be, how they should act and even dress.
For Protestants, the crosses that hang in our churches are empty. Our focus is on the resurrected Christ. We remember His sacrifice, but we should know that it was His, not ours. Ours is different. Ours is to pray without ceasing, give thanks to God for His goodness, and share His love, grace, and forgiveness with our neighbors.
743. :-)
Sometimes I wonder how in the world I ever got anything done when I worked a "regular" job. At least I know now why my house usually looked as if a tornado hit it and why on a normal day, I was ass and elbows. Unless I wasn't. Stop or go. No messing around in the middle for me.
Today is a day that I won't leave the house. It is a sacred day for Muslims that commemorates Abraham's journey to the mountaintop, son and knife in hand. The day is marked by mass religious offerings of goats and cows, mostly. The entire process is prayerful and the majority of the meat is given to the poor. When a young student explained it to me, he made it sound beautiful. Truly religious people want to help the poor.
When I was little and in the car on the way to my Grandmother's house, I saw a side of cow being hoisted up into a barn loft. I was traumatized and then teased about it. If at all possible, I will not eat meat. Fish and chicken if I have to; meaning I need the nutrients because I can't get it anywhere else. Through smirking grins from my co-workers where I was first assigned to "teach English" here, it was joked I must be Hindu because I will not eat cow. Oh well. Of course I would be Hindu because I didn't represent anything else that made sense to them.
Anyway.
So. Sacrifices and offerings. As I was washing dishes I was thinking about that. I guess if your God is mean and hostile, it would be necessary to soothe Him with gifts. The Old Testament is FULL of sacrifice stories.
In this day and age, meat is mass marketed, shot up with steroids, chickens are stacked on top of one another with clipped beaks...in short, rarely do any of us have the opportunity to connect with the manner in which our dinners are prepared for the table.
To pray, give thanks and share the nutrition we receive from animals is a nice change from an industrialized meat market. Yuck.
But back to sacrifices.
Maybe I can say that the Muslim community views sacrifice in that way, to pray, give thanks and share.
In the Christian community, however, there's often a different take on what it means to sacrifice. Too often it seems that it's necessary to endure suffering, as Jesus did. That means that we are to endure being mistreated. One can almost gain a pious and righteous happiness when subjected to more suffering than others. (Adeline Hulot, Cousin Bette by Honore de Balzac, springs to mind) It makes one more devout. Suffering can mean foregoing your own will, wants, goals and dreams to accommodate the expectations of someone else. This can even mean enduring an abusive relationship, whether work or personal (friendships and marriages, specifically)
For me, Jesus suffered for us. He took our sins with Him to the cross. We are washed clean. I don't believe that God wants us to suffer and endure mistreatment. Just the opposite. We are to pray, give thanks and share. Pray without ceasing. Give thanks for every little thing. Share the love, grace and forgiveness that God gives to us. So sacrifice?
Even though God loves us and wants us to be happy (Benjamin Franklin supposedly quipped that beer is proof of that!), perhaps we should sacrifice something, but I don't believe that we are supposed to sacrifice as if we were the Son of man.
We should sacrifice our greed. Our arrogance. Our self-centered consumerism. Our love of material wealth The privilege of status, earned and unearned. The desire to dictate to others how they should be, how they should act and even dress.
For Protestants, the crosses that hang in our churches are empty. Our focus is on the resurrected Christ. We remember His sacrifice, but we should know that it was His, not ours. Ours is different. Ours is to pray without ceasing, give thanks to God for His goodness, and share His love, grace, and forgiveness with our neighbors.
743. :-)
500 Words a Day (1)
I read the other day that writers are a disciplined lot; or maybe that they should be. One writer said that he forces himself to write 500 words a day. The point, he said, was not to break ground on some earth shattering revelation, but just to get the words on the page and maintain a stimulated brain.
Usually when I write, I'm waiting be cause of some epiphany. Something important that I think really needs to be shared. As such, I have a long list of unfinished drafts. I get an idea, I begin to write about it and realize that I can't complete the thoughts...too much...too complicated....lost the inspiration.
Maybe if I write 500 words a day, I'll be able to complete those drafts and not be so inspiration dependent. Maybe.
There's a new Marlboro add here. Advertisements everywhere say something similar to
Maybe
Usually when I write, I'm waiting be cause of some epiphany. Something important that I think really needs to be shared. As such, I have a long list of unfinished drafts. I get an idea, I begin to write about it and realize that I can't complete the thoughts...too much...too complicated....lost the inspiration.
Maybe if I write 500 words a day, I'll be able to complete those drafts and not be so inspiration dependent. Maybe.
There's a new Marlboro add here. Advertisements everywhere say something similar to
I'll climb that mountain
So maybe I won't write 500 hundred words a day. I will write 500 words a day.
It's so easy to fall back into a default mode of being. I'm always reading articles about how to improve any aspect of myself, how to act correctly, say the right things, try to cultivate compassion...somehow in all this scurrying around to be better, I'm wondering if any of those things fills another mantra I often scurry around worrying about which is how to be true to yourself. If I'm always trying to change myself to be better, am I still me?
When I was younger, I was often guided me with words such as "yes, but fill in the blank (nice people, educated people, Southern people, WE, etc.) don't do that", so maybe it's such a part of who I am to contain what I would naturally do, because, well, nice people like I should be don't do things like that.
The hardest thing I've ever tried to rein in is my temper. I'd love to just unleash on somebody sometimes. Right now with all of the shutdown craziness in the US, I'd like to get on Facebook and start a war calling names, making ridiculous accusations, being an emotional reactionary - I know how they feel, but I also know that "educated people don't act like that". I guess I don't act like that. I'd like to though. I wonder why I always hold back. I guess because I know that I shouldn't be stupid or say stupid things.
Most of all, it's because I know things are never simple enough to argue and yell about. Without dialogue and an attempt at mutual understanding, it's a waste of time.
If I'm going to waste time, I'll just play Bejeweled.
I love to waste time. That seems like some kind of cardinal sin. I don't want to take my life or my days for granted, but I just like to zone out sometimes.
I think too much. I always have. There's probably some medication for that, but I don't want it. I guess it's how I am supposed to be - hopefully some good will come out of it one day.
Right now I'm hoping 500 words a day will help bring some good out of it.
And I don't mean maybe.
That was my first attempt and I'm at 478 words. 22 more. Hm.
You know what I've been thinking today? Why made South America ripe for liberation theology to be born? I wonder if anyone has ever compared the administration of Gus Dur to that of Obama. And finally, I wonder if there's so much confusion in the world because we try to use a particular academic framework, i.e. Western with serious critical thinking, and never from the another perspective free of said influence. Hm.
621. Day 1. Check.
Friday, September 27, 2013
A Privileged Position
Privilege is a touchy subject. Oftentimes, it can be relative and dependent upon the players involved. Sometimes it even just depends on where they are.
I don't consider myself privileged. I'm not working, i.e. not rolling in money. I'm a woman and that is only beneficial if it's attached to a role I would play, namely as a spouse or a mother. I'm not in my own territory (country), so I can't say anything, or at least I have to be very careful, about sharing things that I may feel, believe or presume. I'm not a member of any majority group (unless you count Arema supporters, arguably the best local soccer club in Indonesia - woo - may catch it on that one!) In short, I don't feel very privileged.
How I feel, however, and what I say really doesn't matter, because the fact is, I am privileged. Just because of my skin color and my nationality I have unearned privilege. It doesn't mean people will like me, help me, or listen to me, but when most people see me, they think I have money and sometimes even that I'm luckier than they are because I'm a foreigner and I'm somehow "special".
It seems that some people with such perceived privilege come and eat that up. They enjoy the extra attention. They enjoy being able to say things authoritatively and actually just being paid attention to.
I don't like it. I don't want to be treated differently. I don't like to be with Indonesian friends who are waited on after me or who are treated as if they were my hired help. Yep, I don't like it one bit.
And when I don't like things do you know what I can do? I can say something (already touched on how that may work out) or I can go back to the US. And that is privilege. Whenever anything happens that I don't like or agree with, I can go home.
And sometimes I think that's one reason why I haven't gone home ... yet. Not only because I don't want to flaunt that privilege, but more than that, I don't want to reinforce the stereotype that foreigners just come here to see what they can get and then leave. That's not OK.
When I came here, I made a commitment. Not to stay as long as it was fun. Not to stay as long as I was making BIG bucks. Not to stay and try to save the world. And most of all, not to take advantage of an economic system that would allow me to live a life much more luxurious than I could live in the US. I don't think that's cool.
My commitment was to come here...and to be here. Be here. Not DO here. Be here. That's hard.
I've joined a group of Indonesian English teachers on Facebook. I love the exchange of ideas, the thoughtful input from friends who teach, and even the affirmation that things I've noticed really happen.
That being said, it's hard not to have some pretty concrete ideas concerning the ills of the education system here. I like to share, but not to bash or judge, because it's really not my place. Additionally, from all I've been reading lately, the state of public education in the US is in the tanks, so I have no business saying anything about anybody else's system. There are a couple of native speaker teachers, however, who have shared too freely and have raised the ire of some of the members of the group. They were speaking from an assumed position of privilege.
Privilege is a touchy subject.
Being a teacher here affords an elevated status. Being a native speaking English teacher? Well, that's even a notch higher. Being a male, native speaking English teacher? Well, that seems to hit the jack pot!
Teachers are expected to have the answer. All the time. I was once advised by a very smart college professor here that if I don't know the answer, just give it my best shot. The students expect me to know and I can't seem to be uncertain about something or they'll lose confidence in me.
So, there's pressure to step into that place of privilege and "play the part", but for some of us, we know what a slippery slope that is.
I don't want to do it. I won't do it. I just hope that I'll know what to do when I need to.
And I hope that it'll be the best thing possible for someone in such a state of privileged flux to do.
Thursday, September 26, 2013
Home is Where the Heart Is
I haven't been back to the US in almost 3 years.
When I came here, I had no idea that would happen, but it did and here I am.
At the beginning of August, I moved to my favorite place in Indonesia, Malang. It's beautiful here, that's for sure.
But beauty alone doesn't make a place a home. I come from a beautiful place and am thankful that it's my point of origin, but what really makes or breaks a place are the people, the civic culture and the most important of all, the feeling it gives me.
I've been to many beautiful places around the world; Brazil, England, Germany, Greece, Japan, Virgin Islands, Mexico, Canada, Singapore, but only a few give me that deep-down, full-hearted love rush. Other than NC? France in 1986 and Costa Rica in 2007.
Malang in 2013.
I first came here in December of 2011. Even then, I felt a peace unknown to me for many months. This is a wonderful place. I can feel it.
North Carolina is my home. It's where I'm from. Malang is my home. It's where I'm going to be. At least for now.
My heart? It's with me. And it knows where we're happy.
When I came here, I had no idea that would happen, but it did and here I am.
At the beginning of August, I moved to my favorite place in Indonesia, Malang. It's beautiful here, that's for sure.
I've been to many beautiful places around the world; Brazil, England, Germany, Greece, Japan, Virgin Islands, Mexico, Canada, Singapore, but only a few give me that deep-down, full-hearted love rush. Other than NC? France in 1986 and Costa Rica in 2007.
Malang in 2013.
I first came here in December of 2011. Even then, I felt a peace unknown to me for many months. This is a wonderful place. I can feel it.
North Carolina is my home. It's where I'm from. Malang is my home. It's where I'm going to be. At least for now.
My heart? It's with me. And it knows where we're happy.
Wednesday, September 25, 2013
Be Happy
I love Facebook. I really do.
Maybe it's because my friends are so diverse...maybe it's because I get to learn so many new cool things that my smart friends post, laugh at the things my humorous friends, post...
Today there was a post from a page that focuses on how to make a better life. The quote was something like "Change your thoughts and change the world".
If you can believe this, one commentator was really rather pissy about it. He said basically that if you're poor/abused/trafficked/exploited/working for no pay that it's impossible to change your thoughts and change the world. Did I say already that he was a bit pissy?
Now, I'm a bit of a Pollyanna-ist and I try my hardest to be happy, even whilst plopped in the middle of a streaming pile of poop, and I'll tell you this. If I couldn't control my mind and my thoughts and decide that I deserved to be happy, I'd still be in that big pile of poop. What "pissy" people miss when they respond so virulently to those quotes is that nobody EVER gets out of those situations and stays out if they have a defeatest attitude.
I would like to ask him and the others I've heard with a similar criticism of "happy thoughts" what dire situations their kind of thinking has saved them from. My guess is that the list would be sort.
Defeatest, victim thinking never wins. It may get a person through a battle, but it won't win the war. One thing I think that people who feel like that miss is that being happy does not in any way imply acceptance. A person can be happy and still mad as hell. How?
Because they decide to be happy about what they can be happy about (breathing, an opportunity to make a difference, being able to walk, having an amazing child, etc.) and they use the good energy of gratitude to tirelessly and with great effort make the world better by being kind.
Jogging is good for health. I know that, but if you see me running, you better run, too because that means I'm being chased by a wild alien and an attack is eminent!
Just kidding, but bear with me.
How many joggers have you seen smiling and looking happy? When we pass them on the street, don't they usually have a face of pain and anguish? I respect joggers, but frankly, a jogger in action is no advertisement to jump on the road and run along, too.
Life can be like that. When I was little, our pastor was a dour man. He rarely smiled, and when he did, it seemed somehow cynical and rather cold. When our religious leaders are always so somber and even a bit cold, does it make other people want to join in and "get religious"? I have to guess a big no on that one.
Being happy doesn't mean to ignore the world's ills. It doesn't mean to live in a fantasy land where nothing bad ever happens, but what it means is that there's something more. There's something that can put a smile on our faces IN SPITE OF.
Hope. Love. Faith. Something.
The first thing we have to do is know that it's worth it. Life is worth it. The blessing of being here is worth it.
Being happy doesn't mean that you don't care.
It means the opposite. It means that you do care.
Life is hard enough. Our hearts don't have to be, too.
We don't have to love the ills of the world. We don't have to accept them, but...
...we have to love ourselves and others at least enough to not add to the list.
Maybe it's because my friends are so diverse...maybe it's because I get to learn so many new cool things that my smart friends post, laugh at the things my humorous friends, post...
Today there was a post from a page that focuses on how to make a better life. The quote was something like "Change your thoughts and change the world".
If you can believe this, one commentator was really rather pissy about it. He said basically that if you're poor/abused/trafficked/exploited/working for no pay that it's impossible to change your thoughts and change the world. Did I say already that he was a bit pissy?
Now, I'm a bit of a Pollyanna-ist and I try my hardest to be happy, even whilst plopped in the middle of a streaming pile of poop, and I'll tell you this. If I couldn't control my mind and my thoughts and decide that I deserved to be happy, I'd still be in that big pile of poop. What "pissy" people miss when they respond so virulently to those quotes is that nobody EVER gets out of those situations and stays out if they have a defeatest attitude.
I would like to ask him and the others I've heard with a similar criticism of "happy thoughts" what dire situations their kind of thinking has saved them from. My guess is that the list would be sort.
Defeatest, victim thinking never wins. It may get a person through a battle, but it won't win the war. One thing I think that people who feel like that miss is that being happy does not in any way imply acceptance. A person can be happy and still mad as hell. How?
Because they decide to be happy about what they can be happy about (breathing, an opportunity to make a difference, being able to walk, having an amazing child, etc.) and they use the good energy of gratitude to tirelessly and with great effort make the world better by being kind.
Jogging is good for health. I know that, but if you see me running, you better run, too because that means I'm being chased by a wild alien and an attack is eminent!
Just kidding, but bear with me.
How many joggers have you seen smiling and looking happy? When we pass them on the street, don't they usually have a face of pain and anguish? I respect joggers, but frankly, a jogger in action is no advertisement to jump on the road and run along, too.
Life can be like that. When I was little, our pastor was a dour man. He rarely smiled, and when he did, it seemed somehow cynical and rather cold. When our religious leaders are always so somber and even a bit cold, does it make other people want to join in and "get religious"? I have to guess a big no on that one.
Being happy doesn't mean to ignore the world's ills. It doesn't mean to live in a fantasy land where nothing bad ever happens, but what it means is that there's something more. There's something that can put a smile on our faces IN SPITE OF.
Hope. Love. Faith. Something.
The first thing we have to do is know that it's worth it. Life is worth it. The blessing of being here is worth it.
Being happy doesn't mean that you don't care.
It means the opposite. It means that you do care.
Life is hard enough. Our hearts don't have to be, too.
We don't have to love the ills of the world. We don't have to accept them, but...
...we have to love ourselves and others at least enough to not add to the list.
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