How does one ever become "used to" looking in the face of poverty?
I guess that is just it- we don't look. We don't look into the face because somehow, if we don't ascribe a name, an age, a story, a life to the outstretched hands and pleading voice, then, somehow, this human exists as nothing more than an institution we call poverty.
The poverty in India is grotesque. The majority of beggars that I encounter here are either physically deformed or children. These young children display a certain feral demeanor; their wild hair and torn clothes, caked in dirt. Even before the availability of words, they have been taught to be frighteningly relentless. This is survival.
Thus, the paradox of poverty.
I remember the conundrum well in America. Do you give the beggar a few coins? Do you take your chances at inviting them in to a meal? Do you point them in the direction of the nearest shelter?
How can I reject money from the glaring eyes, the desperate mother, the crying child? In all honestly, what will my meager change do? Do I perpetuate a system that perhaps fills a stomach today but leaves it once more empty tomorrow? Do I continue to teach this child that it is ok for him to skip out on school for the day so that he can gather enough rupees for his daily sustenance?
I don't know.
Sadly, I can imagine that, even here, there are places that one could shield his or herself away from the eyesore that it is and perhaps, live a life in which even the knowledge of poverty was non-existent. Ignorance is bliss.
So, perhaps, recognition—giving poverty a face—is one of the first steps to the solution. I won't give you a rupee right now, but I will look you in the eye and promise in my heart that I will commit myself to changes in my own life and in the systems that deprive you of your rights and livelihood.
**Give us our daily bread not only that we may have enough to eat, but also that we may be empowered by You with the courage to share, change and live in solidarity with your Creation
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2 comments:
Sweet Katherine,
Thank you for reminding us to look into the eyes of poverty, and not just into the institution of it. I used to dream of being able to start a mnistry where we would take in one family at a time, and would relaunch them into society with a residence, clothing, skills, jobs, schools, food, insurance, transportation, and documentation. It remains a dream of mine unrealized. I wonder if in situations like Kerala if somehow we could pay children to go to school, and bathe, and learn... not too much, a little less than they earn as a beggar. But in so doing make school more survivalistic for them. Thanks again, and blessings on you and those God has you serving.
Thanks Katherine, for not letting us look past the eyes of poverty when we'd rather just see the impersonal insitituion of it. I wonder if we could actually pay children to attend school. Imagine if all the money the people give to the children, if we could convince them to give it to the schools, and let the schools distribute it to the children when they come, and bathe, and learn. An incentive for the beggars to break to cycle. And an incentive for the enablers to break their cycle of merciless donations. Just a wondering... Blessings on you and those God has you serving.
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