Bring Love. Live.

       I felt an incredible urge to travel, this was then transformed into an urge to have a purpose while traveling. I planned on possibly teaching English in South America while connecting with a community down there. This initial idea morphed into a desire to help people – help build houses, fresh water wells, cisterns – that sort of thing. I then read an article given to me by Stephen about a speech given by a priest in Mexico, Ivan Illich, addressing an audience of would be “helpers” of his country. The priest condemned the “help” these volunteers were giving and even called them pretentious. (2) Reading this speech of four decades ago caused me to scrutinize my own reasons for traveling and “helping” those I thought less fortunate than myself.

        As I examined my purposes, thoroughly, and found that there may have been a self serving attitude behind wanting to help. After conversations with my small group – Stephen, Liz, Peggy, and Chip – I realized that one of the best ways to develop lasting change and help is to embolden Christians in other countries, and have them encourage us in Durango with their stories, experiences and prayers. Just as short term mission trips have their place as an encouragement to the local church that can actually reach the local people, I believe my trip to South America will accomplish meaningful tasks. I hope to interview people in the Latin countries - whether they be long term missionaries, church folk, people not belonging to a specific organization, or those who are genuinely searching for truth. With these interviews and conversations I hope to instill in the people I meet that our church in Durango cares for them and their mission, that we are part of the same body, and that we are hoping to learn from them and, if desired, help them accomplish their mission through prayer, support, or direct action by flying down to hammer nails and play with the kids.

       David Platt writes in Radical, “As important as it is for us to be radical in our giving, it is even more important for us to be radical in our going.” (1) I found this to be extremely compelling argument and the conversations that resulted from this study continue to shape my ideas for going on this trip.

       Platt tells a story about preparing for a trip to the Sudan to help in any way he could. The trip, due to its complexity in getting into the country, visas, etc. would cost around $3,000. David was approached by a lady at his church that asked why he didn't just give the $3,000 to the people in Sudan – surely that would give more help than him just going there. This bothered David and he started to question the trip. After much thought he ended up going, and had an interesting conversation with a man he met while in Sudan, Andrew.

Andrew asked, “Even in light of all these things that people have given to us, do you want to know how you can tell who a true brother is?”

David leaned forward and asked, “How?”

Andrew responded, “A true brother comes to be with you in your time of need.” Then he looked David in the eye and said, “David, you are a true brother. Thank you for coming to be with us.” (1)

       This story really captures the effect of what GOING can do versus just GIVING. It also highlights a lesson that Chip gave based on the 'Jackass' theory – that being there while people are going through pain just to be there with them – the main purpose being not to ease their discomfort but to be with them while they are going through it. Of course helping, if requested, is something we would all love to do, it may not be necessary. Just GOING to be with people who are oppressed may be enough to ease some of their suffering. Just as the Jackass guys surrounded McGhehey in the Lamborghini Tooth Pull stunt, bloody toothless crying and all, we have the option of being with each other and our brothers around the world – we just have to go.

       Continuing this thought, there is an obvious problem with one person, or group of people trying to GO to be with all of the nations of the world – there simply isn't enough time. Just as Jesus was unable to reach the multitudes he instead devoted his time to building his team to take the message to people everywhere. My goal is not to reach everyone, but to encourage and embolden those people who have already built established communities. The people who are most plugged into their culture and have spent the time to build lasting relationships.

       The other aspect will be bringing this story back to Durango and the interview process will hopefully yield a video journal of the people and places that I come across. I hope this will have an impact on our group and we will be even more inspired to develop our relational role in our community as we continue to build relationships with Durangotans.

       Of course this is an entirely new experience for me and I'm sure this foggy thesis will evolve and change as I continue to drive south, but having a focus on learning from the people I meet, and just being with them will undoubtedly remain a major focus. The likely things to change will be how I make relationships and interview the people I come across, the questions I ask, etc.

Work Cited

1. Platt, David. “Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream.” The Doubleday Religious Publishing Group, 2010. Print.

2. Illich, Ivan. To Hell with Good Intentions. The Swaraj Foundation. April 20, 1968. Available at http://www.swaraj.org/illich_hell.htm. Accessed April 10, 2011

Where does milk come from?

       
       The image is striking. The sideways baseball cap, the heavy open-mouthed gaze, and the great burden of the large bucket of under-ripe green tomatoes hoisted into the air. The precious cargo being stabilized only by a shoulder and a white-gloved hand. This image is not rare, in fact, it is commonplace in the Immokalee work camps where workers are severely underpaid and hard labor and injustice have become the norms in these Florida fields.

        Josh Viertel, who is president of Slow Food USA, recently marched with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) in the snow-filled streets of Boston to demand wage fairness and declare solidarity between the slow food movement and the workers that provide the food we savor and need. Viertel's opening speech of the march is filled with imagery of hope in what the future could look like if justice and dignity were shared with the workers who pick the nutrition that arrives in supermarkets across the country. If thought, value, and worth are given to the food we put into our bodies, then thought, value, and worth must also be given to way our food is grown, harvested, and processed, lest we forget where our food actually comes from.

        In his speech, Viertel tells a story of a young man born in Zacatecas, Mexico, and the plight that his future holds as an immigrant worker in the Immokalee fields. Gerardo Reyes shares ties to the food system just as Viertel, but instead of doing so out of interest, his ties to the food industry are through necessity. He is a field worker and organizer for the CIW and also shares the same birth year as Viertel. Having been born in Mexico, Reyes has been deemed exploitable by the current industrial agriculture system. Out of site and out of mind, Reyes and other workers, have been devalued to the point of forced slavery, having been paid in illicit drugs, cigarettes, and having been forced to live in despicable housing conditions such as a locked Uhaul truck with no facilities.

        Just as profit drives food to become fast, its production processes are devalued in the same hurried fashion. Tomatoes in our supermarkets have lost their flavor due to having been picked from the vine before they've ripened, a chicken nugget's origin is questionable as to whether it had actually been derived from chicken meat, and we've become disconnected from the workers that harvest our food. A close friend, Star, who is raising a young son, struggles to connect food with its inception.

        “Milk comes from a cup!” stated Thor in exuberance and pride.

        Star, dismayed, asked again, “No honey, where does it come before we pour it in the cup?”

        “From the fridge!” Thor beamed, knowing he got it right this time.

        The difficulty of explaining where our food comes from is not because we don't care, but because we no longer engage with our food production. A carton of milk is easily plucked from the cooler in the supermarket, transferred to a cart, then to shopping bag, placed in our refrigerator, then poured into a cup for us to gulp down. Modern processes have deemed it unnecessary and, in fact, inefficient for everyone to have a cow for milking at our residence, but is efficiency really worth it? Does separating ourselves from where and how our food is produced help humanity or hurt it?

        The Immokalee workers have a long struggle in front of them, but as Viertel and others recognize the importance of linking where their food comes from, and who harvests it, the battle is closer to being won. Little victories, such as the 1 penny-per-pound increase in tomato picker wages will compile, and hopefully snowball, to the point where the picker is no longer an invisible character in the story of food. The field workers will be given the credit they deserve for their hard work and the important role they play in our current agriculture system.

        As Viertel states at the end of his address, “The world is ours to make,” (1) I agree that the lives of the Immokalee workers depend on all of us and our collective abilities to help compassion and justice break into our flawed food system.

Work Cited

1. Viertel, Josh. Life. The Atlantic. Mar 2, 2011. Available at http://www.theatlantic.com/life/archive/2011/03/we-are-all-farmworkers/71951/. Accessed Mar 25, 2011

Bread crumbs.

       In an effort to keep track of some of the ideas and thoughts that pass through my life I've decided to start documenting them here. It seems like I have a million ideas and causes that excite me. I get real excited about one thing, am intensely focused, but then comes the next "thing" that throws me off and I begin to pursue it instead of focusing on becoming knowledgeable and versed in the original cause. With this documentation I hope to be able to use it as a tool to look back and remind myself of what I was thinking about yesterday, a month ago, and hopefully for years to come.
        I also find this format more polished than a Facebook note or document. Straight text is usually a bit too boring for me but the blogspot setup allows one to adjust and make an appealing page for readers - me mostly!