Empathy

Me, my wife and Audrey were on the way home from my parent’s house last night in the middle of heavy rain.  From a distance we saw a guy walked with a heavy loads on his shoulder. The loads are two boxes with a portable stove inside one of the boxes, while in the other box there some fried foods. The foods are covered with transparent plastic cover. Yes he was the fried food seller whose selling the food door to door along the village road. But last night was not a good night for him, heavy rain came since the afternoon, that’s why the food was still so many on the tray. People were not around on the road, no body went out from their house during the rain. We were very sorry for him; my wife told me that may be when he come home with so many foods are still there in the box; and when his wife ask how much money that he get, he’ll be so sad. The sadness for not able to give a little money for the food and other needs for his family for the next day. We can imagine the struggle of that man to afford his family. Then my wife told Audrey to thank God for what Papi and Mami have been given to her. I said to her: “Just see that poor man, he has to work very hard just to give meals for his kids, Audrey must thank God for every meals given”.

Last night we felt like we are very lucky and very rich people. We are full with so many bless. Suddenly we were so ashamed for the jealousy and the ungenerous behavior that we have did to somebody else. I am also the one who should be  ashamed  of my self because I always complain for everything; I should learn from that man, even under a heavy rain he still walked and tried to sell the foods for somebody that he might be met on the street.

Yesterday I just posted ‘39,700 Labor Lost Their Job’ that shows us the sad fact during the economic crisis up to date. Many of them do not know how to face the crisis, many of them are desperate for having new job to feed their family. Many of them will meet a hard life in their daily life. They will suffer from the high food price, from various needs they can not  afford. Until they will come to a certain point that they can not withstand; there will be so many crimes committed by the frustrated unemployment labor. Just imagine when the kids are suffered from hunger, or from lacking of nutrition, or when so many babies don’t have their milk anymore….

So how to help them?

Again…. I repeat my previous words that I don’t  have any answer for that question. I just have the empathy for them, I only have passion for them. I don’t have solution for the unemployment, neither how to give them the job. I only committed to start to put my attention on my surrounding, the nearest people. Let me see what I can do for them, may be I’ll hire a house maid that I’ll take from the wife of an unemployment labor whose live in the neighborhood. Or may be I can give some of my food to the one who suffered from the hunger. And of course I will always pray for them so they will always have the bless from The Almighty.

Recently I got an enrichment from my friend Tikno whose commented my previous posting “I Don’t Like It”; he said: “Why you don’t like poverty?” The very first impression of that question was “what a simple question”, but I realized later on that was not a simple one. It’s a touchy question. When I wrote that I don’t like poverty is just simply because I think poverty is the source of crimes, and the source of life’s disorder. But then I found out that there is another perspective of poverty that can lead in to a method or a way of life to have a very simple life, but of course this is a choice of how to live a life with simplicity. It’s a choice of having minimum needs. Some people feel that if they have much money then their life will be easy, but seems there is no easy life if they still have even much more needs. When you succeeded in limiting your needs then you’ll have an easy life; that’s the basic concept of having a simple life. ….thanks Tikno, you have opened my eyes.

There was also a Franciscan Padre who showed me how to live in poverty and he amazingly survived and could serve the people with so much loves to give. Yet he doesn’t have decent cloth to wear, he still has smiles on his face. He has thin body, but he moves so quick, he has a large of energy. He doesn’t have any complain  for his life, he tanks God for everything he had…wow…What a role model for me!!!…May be the way this Padre live can be spread to the unemployment people, so they still have spirits in life and finally by a positive motivation they can overcome the crisis.