USA!!!
Trip Start
Sep 28, 2008
1
11
Trip End
Oct 12, 2008
New York City, JFK airport, New York
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Giddy is an understatement for how I felt upon returning to the US. I had flown from Calcutta to Delhi and nothing was easy to figure out but at least it was somewhat familiar. When I arrived at JFK, I was almost beside myself... OMG, there were murals on the walls, carpet in the waiting areas, clean bathrooms!!!! It was amazingly quiet, even with loads of people going through customs and immigration. People smiled at me first. I felt like I was on cloud nine. I could get cold soda! Chocolate other than KitKat candy bars! No one was bumping into me all the time, no beggars, but most of all, things were clean. How I relish clean!!
There is no way to go to an impoverished country and not come away with a new awareness of all that we have. Ironically, I caught just a bit of an HBO movie that was asking many of the same questions I had in mind: why does the color my of skin make a difference? Why does the work I do make more money than the work others do? Why did I happen to be born on THIS side of the planet versus THAT side? How can we live, and work, and play when so many others are destitute? How can we possibly complain about such mundane things like the weather, or a blister of our foot, or a waiter that doesn't bring us water with our meal or any of the number of utterly ridiculous things we manage to complain about in the course of the day? And still, I'm human and I've grown accustomed to things being a certain way.... I expect good service, I expect clean rooms, I expect people to obey traffic rules, I expect good health care, I expect my life to look and feel a certain way. I know that I live in a place where if I want to change my life for the better, I can.
As I rode past the people on the streets, watching grown men plays games on the sidewalk, the beggars, the people in the markets, I asked: how do they make their life better? Or is it only b/c of my American mindset that I make the assumption they can't be content in what seems to me to be an appalling existence. I question if all the cliches we use: " you're only as happy as you make your mind up to be," "if you work hard, you can achieve anything," -- and all I can think is who the hell do I think I am!! Is this really true -- for everyone?? How does all this fit with what I've seen? I don't know. I don't have any great answers.
But I do know that I laid my head down on a clean mattress with crisp sheets and a soft pillow for my head, in my clean apartment, got water from the tap without having to worry about parasites, took a hot shower, dried off with clean towels... I didn't bathe in the streets, I opened my refrigerator and took out good food, ate my organic bread.... and today in Calcutta, the beggar with a stump of an arm is likely to still be lying on the side of the street, the taxi drivers are still hustling to make money, the families are still making their home on the sidewalk, squatting to relieve themselves, making their meal over a pit, men are likely to have slept last night beside the road, lying, if they're lucky, on a dirty piece of cloth while the chaos and noise exists around them.....
It is my heartfelt prayer that I never forget and when I am inclined to complain about the annoyances in my life, that I will remember what I saw and be grateful for the gift that is my life.
Pictures are promised... until then, truly, may we all be safe, may we all be well, may we all be happy... namaste.
Comments
WELCOME BACK
Wow---just figured out how to read all of your entries! Very interesting...very mind boggling....mind changing.....Glad you are back in the USA. Keep in touch.
Barb