Haiti – Return to Miami June 4
We had our final devotions last night. It was pretty intense. Craig revealed that he’s had some rough times lately, and professed his belief in God. I outed myself as an Atheist. Some people wept. It was all good. It seems that everyone had a positive experience, and will probably continue in some sort of service for the poor.
Carrie warned me that re-acclimating can be rough. American culture is more than a little bit strange … relative to Haiti. I expect that Starbucks will be especially weird.
I believe that I am what I do, nothing less and nothing more. Unless I act on a belief, it does not exist.
I believe that the root of compassion is to truly experience what it would be to be another sentient being. Not simply to be me in their situation, but to experience their hungers, passions, think in their language, love their mother, and everything else.
I believe that good and evil are more than mere constructs of society. That they have extrinsic existence. I believe that good and evil exist between sentient beings, that good actions flow from compassion, and evil from its opposite.
As I stood in the circle last night, I meditated on how one could ever truly know what it is like to be someone else. All at once it came to me: Be near them, eat what they eat, drink what they drink, and listen to what they say. That’s the best we can do, and it’s more than enough.
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