The Human Experience

Where there is life, there is hope.

What causes people to hope as they had scarcely allowed themselves to do before? There is a lot of heartache in this worlds experience but hope and faith are what keep people holding on. The instinct to survive and to hope for a better tomorrow is something that everyone feels, something that everyone knows. It is the strength of belief.

I have been thinking a lot lately about human beings and what our experiences here on earth are all about. From a spiritual perspective, I have that figured out. I know that if I endure to the end and live worthily I will return to live with my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ again, but what about my experience here on earth will give it the most value, what will allow me to influence as many people as I can and allow them to influence me as well? What sorts of things do I need to understand that will allow me to help guide others to come unto Christ through my example? I guess I just want to utilize my time here on earth in the best way that I can.

I am big on documentaries. I love them. When I was at home about a month ago with my family we watched one called "The Human Experience". In this film, Jeffrey Azize wants to find answers to the question, "What does it mean to be human?". To do this he and his brother spend a week experiencing what it means to be homeless, sleeping on the streets and begging for food included, then they go to Peru and onto Ghana to visit my place, my people...naturally I loved this. They visited leper colonies and spent time with people with AIDS, visit a hospital full of abandoned children etc...while watching them experience these things my mind was racing and I was taking notes like crazy on my phone because it really made me think about life.

-FAMILY:

       Family is the project of the human being. What it is to be loved and where that dignity comes from begins in the home. Our families provide us with our first experiences. Hopefully home and family means a safe space where we rejuvenate and heal. Whether it has been that place of security or if its been a place of insecurity, you want to share your life with them. They are yours. Family is true happiness and a love that you cant explain.

-RELATIONSHIPS:

       What is the human relationship? We're talking true, meaningful relationships here. Now that does not mean that you have to know everything about one another, nor does it mean that you have really influenced one another's lives or even spent a significant amount of time together. Of course, those relationships tend to be the ones we value most in this life; but, I think it is much more than that. The human relationship is about acceptance. It is about loving someone not because of what they do, but because of who they are...thats not to say that people's actions aren't important because they make us who we are...what I mean by this is that really great relationships between human beings all have one thing in common: ACCEPTANCE. Acceptance simply because you are a human being, because you are real. Imperfect just like everybody else, but real.

-LIFE, the ability to choose:

      A human life is an unrepeatable, unprecedented adventure. Every human life. Not one single human being  that has lived and ever will live will experience life the same. We each have unique experiences that shape our worlds out of those experiences. Our lives are a result of the world that has created us yet at the same time the world we live in is one that we have created. When God created the earth he gave us more than enough to spare, it is what it is now because of what we have made of it. Similarly, He gave us life and all the resources we need to survive, but we choose how we use those resources in this life. We live on the earth but choose how we make our world. CHOOSE is the big word here. Over the last few months I have learned the gravity of that word. The power that I have to choose is so much bigger than I had ever realized before. I strongly believe that the Lord has a plan for me and that He will guide me down that path, yet I have the ability to choose to follow it, to follow Him. I was reading an article in the June or July 2013 Ensign about a week ago, I cant recall which one, which was talking about independence saying that "real freedom is best exhibited and experienced by always CHOOSING THE RIGHT. God has given you not only the right to choose between good and evil but also the power to choose good OVER evil." God has given us power to choose; And it is a powerful thing, a powerful choice even. The choices we make determine the lives we live but ultimately we choose. This power to choose places us above Satan and his hosts, we decide, not Satan. With that, there is no room for blame. The only people we can blame for our attitudes and our experiences are ourselves. Of course there are times and people and places who do not have the ability to choose because it has been taken from them through forms of slavery, addiction, imprisonment or whatever, but attitudes are completely our own. No one but you can decide how you feel and how you see a situation. Those choices about how you feel are huge. I have experienced both sides of this in choosing to be miserable and sad and choosing to be happy and let me tell you, happiness is the better choice. And it was as simple as CHOOSING to be happy. It sounds crazy but I really did choose how to feel and it made all the difference. At the same time I had to be making good choices in order to really truly feel that happiness but it works.

-FIND JOY

       I have spent a lot of time outdoors experiencing this beautiful earth and what it has to offer over the last few months and incredible sights are truly something to be experienced and it is hard not to love those things. But, I have made it a point to find joy in the ordinary, in the simplest things and that has made all the difference.

Journal #23: Define--poverty and freedom

 

photos from pinterest

 what is poverty?          what is freedom?

     If only there was a single person in this world who knew the answer to that question. World Bank defines poverty as living on one US dollar per day or less but what does that even measure? It is true that in America, living standards for the "well off" middle class American are even fairly high if compared to a majority of the world but not everyone in this world needs to live the way we do. Who is even to say that our way is the best way like many 'westerners' claim. Many people who read that statement from the World Bank would agree that poverty is interchangeable with the word 'poor' but that is not entirely what it means. Poverty is a socially constructed notion. Because we live in an unequal world, some one had to define the condition for those who do not have as much as another. Of the worlds 20 poorest countries, 18 of them are in Africa but that doesn't mean that they themselves, would view themselves as impoverished in all accounts. Certainly they do not all have iPhones, iPads, fancy cars, Platinum credit cards and the like, but that does not mean that they cannot afford the comforts that they deem necessary for a happy life. 

      Poverty is highly individualized. There can certainly be monetary poverty which is what most people think of when they hear the word but there is also familial and spiritual poverty among others. In class we were asked to define our idea of poverty in our own words and I defined it as this " the lack of all things needed to live a healthy, happy life. (i.e lack of resources, lack of proper nutrients, lack of empowerment...ultimately a lack of control). Someone might look at a tiny village in Korphe where Dr. Greg Mortensen (3 Cups of Tea) built a school and think that they need much more than just the school that he gave him but they have been living for many years on what they have and they are both happy and healthy so he gave them something they were lacking, education. Many people have read book and say that they are now free from ignorance and have an education and I am not discounting education at all, I think it is one of the most valuable things I have, but I am simply trying to suggest that while the idea of poverty is real, it cannot be defined. It is too real to too many different people insomuch that there is no one right answer.  My definition itself deals, in my mind, with the idea of freedom as well. How would one be freed from this poverty? One Ghanaian woman defines freedom itself as this..."Define Freedom – To wake up every day to do what you love" Valerie The ability to wake up every day and do what you love would be a freeing thing. Without constraints to tie you down and the lack of food, the lack of hope, the lack of love, you would have the ability to do anything. I don't know whether or not I can even define these things fully in a way that I can understand myself. Thus is the dichotomy of thought of human beings. Some people upon reading this might agree while others could completely oppose and see my views as narrow minded but that is where the beauty of human beings comes from. Our differing views and thoughts are what makes the world go round.
     "poverty" and "freedom" will both no doubt affect the every day dealings of the people with whom I interact so it is going to be important to keep that in mind and to come to understand how they view the ideas. Similarly it will be interesting to see how my thoughts change while I experience a different life in Ghana.