\nHaiti – Return to Miami June 4<\/b><\/p>\n
![](\"http:\/\/cdwan.org\/pics\/2006\/2006_Haiti\/2006_Haiti-Thumbnails\/288.jpg\")
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
I believe that I am what I do, nothing less and nothing more. Unless I act on a belief, it does not exist.<\/p>\n I believe that the root of compassion is to truly experience what it would be to be<\/em> 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/em><\/p>\n![](\"http:\/\/cdwan.org\/pics\/2006\/2006_Haiti\/2006_Haiti-Thumbnails\/296.jpg\")
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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"