The Gap

Its hard not to compare poverty to worse poverty (we have all done it...even saying "what about the poor in our contry.) Handing out food and clothes in lower wacker...rough. Generations of poeple living in the garbage dump in Ecuador was shocking to experience. So was visiting the home (1 room 1 bed) of 6 orphans in Africa…the oldest (caretaker) only 17. Being here in Haiti and seeing the destruction of an earthquake on one of the most under-resourced nations in the world…tough too. Was it the worst I have ever seen…maybe. But the gap between poor and poorest is much smaller than the gap between opportunity and inaction. It would take so little to move someone from extreme poverty to what the rest of the world would consider livable and acceptable. Yet it takes so much more for those of us with resources of knowledge, experience, talent and wealth to move toward understanding, patience, compassion and generosity. Perhaps we should be less worried about the gap between poor and really poor and focus a little more on the gap between our abundance and our response. There are a million reasons not to do something…and all of them are valid I'm sure. But at some point we need to all be willing to ask ourselves, is it worth it?

Here is what is worth it...It's worth the travel, and the tiredness and the extreme heat. Its worth it when at the end of a long day a little girl sits on your lap and lays her head in your arms. Its worth it when that little girl takes your arms to embrace her even tighter…because she knows your leaving tomorrow. She knows that someone who cared enough to show up, cared enough to play, cared enough to give…is the someone she wants to hold her…even for just 20 mins. She didn’t close her eyes…she didn’t sleep…she looked up to the stars...beyond this world.

Tomorrow we will be worlds apart but that gap that is the hardest to move just got a little closer.