Today, I had a special experience I will always remember.

[Stuart G]

I am leader of a meeting on Monday mornings. We discuss "spirituality." This happened today. The subject was "gratitude" .. (Christmas morning , 12/25/17) ..I go to this meeting every Monday. I am retired.

.Being grateful for what we have. I was thinking for a few days about what to say (the leader gives a short talk, ( 5 minutes ) on a subject from a book. After the short talk, we go around the room, and everyone has an opportunity to comment on what is said.

What do I say on Christmas morning? What am I grateful for? I thought about this. I decided to talk about "life tools" like running water, electricity, heat, etc. The meeting was in a old church, ( I would say about 140 years old, maybe older) and I noticed that the church had gas pipes that were used for lighting before electricity was installed all over the room) So I showed the 8 people at the meeting, the gas pipes that were sticking out of the walls with covers on them, permanently off. I also said, that I had a student in one of the high school classes (25 years ago) that I taught, that came from poverty on another continent, and he grew up in a small town without electricity. (no TV, he said.)

Here is what happened. A member of the group this morning spoke up, and said he was in the Peace Corp in the 70s and was assigned to a country, on another continent in a town with no electricity, no heat, no running water. He said that he had to ask one of the local teenagers..(I think he paid them) to get his daily bucket of water. He had some kind of portable gas stove that he used to cook, (boil the water to remove impurities) and commented that where he lived, there was a hole in the floor in a room ( that was a bathroom) where he took a "poop." This member was not the kind of person that would make this up. Here was someone in the room, who had an experience with no running water, no heat, and no electricity. And told us what he did to deal with this.

So, I heard today, someone who had an experience in the 70s, somewhere in this world, with no electricity, no heat, or running water. Things we all take for granted, yet are extremely important in life. Things we all should be grateful for. Why? It has only been the last 140 years at most, that we have had these important everyday living tools. I told this person that his experience was incredible, and he needs to share it... We have so much, and what we think about is often so little....

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. I appreciate what you've told us today.

We do take these things for granted. We've seemingly always had them, and of course we always will.

Right?

Probably. And yet there are folks who live in our country who don't have electricity, heat, running water, toilets, all the things we take for granted. The homeless are in that group.

What do the homeless have to be grateful for?


We have so much.

[Irish_Dem]

2. Some of the poor I have known, are the most grateful and kind people you can imagine.

They are grateful for things we take for granted.
And generous with what little they have.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

3. You speak the truth! It's odd how things work...

[Stuart G]

5. Thank You for you have said..You are correct.

So many of our poor are.. "very grateful and kind and generous with what little they have."

[handmade34]

6. no need to go to

another Country or go back to the 70's to hear stories of "no electricity, no heat, or running water"... stories abound in present day United States

we have mostly become voluntarily ignorant to how some of our neighbors and fellow citizens live

[Stuart G]

8. " We have mostly become voluntarily ignorant to how some of our neighbors and fellow citizens live."

Very special words for 2017...very sad..

.and many people here is the U.S.A. couldn't care less about how our fellow citizens live. My feeling is all, yes all of those who don't care are "Republicans." even some so called "Independents" care beyond their own selfish needs..by "Republicans" don't care.................

[handmade34]

11. my work

for the past 12 years put me right into all kinds of communities throughout the U.S... I have been to and seen more than most- from the richest communities in LA, Miami, New York, and many wealthy estates throughout rural U.S., etc. to the poorest from the projects in New York and Chicago, East St Louis, Baltimore and throughout rural U.S... Zapata, South West Virginia, rural Alabama, etc...

I have seen way too many grossly expensive and expansive homes (estates) and I have witnessed people living in long abandoned buildings, sleeping in doorways and under overpasses, families living in shacks most wouldn't consider suitable for their pets...

I want people to have to live in other's shoes long enough to have empathy... something sorely lacking here in the U.S.

I live in an extremely modest house in rural Vermont and am very happy with it... I do have running water (although it did freeze a couple of days ago) electricity and a very noisy propane furnace... in years past I spent periods of time without any of those things, sometimes voluntarily and sometimes not

most of us just do not understand how our fellow citizens live... that is unfortunate

[malaise]

7. Great post

We take a lot for granted

[ProudLib72]

9. In the late 90s I went to Lithuania for 5 weeks for a summer program in Yiddish

There were people from all over the US and other countries. For about two weeks I was simply amazed at how inexpensive everything was in Lithuania. I was eating at these nice restaurants and paying about 1/3 what I would here in the US. The university through which the program was held had a cafeteria that was even cheaper. I would buy a lunch for 35 cents.

There was a group of Russians doing the program. They came from extreme poverty, and Lithuania was wealthy in comparison to what they were used to. They shopped at the outdoor markets and would never purchase lunch in the cafeteria. However, they were the happiest group of people in the program.

Toward the end of the program, there was a "graduation" ceremony. Everyone piled into the lecture hall where the ceremony was being held. Something was different. From the walls hung these gorgeous charcoal sketches of the teachers and program leaders, even some of the students. The paper used for the sketches looked strange, kind of patterned. It turned out there was a budding artist in the Russian contingent. He had found some really cheap wall paper in one of the outdoor markets and bought a few rolls. For half of the "semester" he had been sketching the people in the program, and these were the final renditions that decorated the hall. Everyone stared at the works of art, looking for a picture of themselves or discussing how the sketches captured the essence of the program leaders. The Russian artist was so happy.

I think about that experience now and again. The Russians were extremely poor. They were living on a couple of dollars a day, and even then they were barely able to afford to be there. But they were willing to scrape together enough money to create these wonderful sketches that everyone could enjoy. They wanted to give back.

[Stuart G]

10. You know, that is the essence of many of us here, "They wanted to give back"

Many of us in the Democratic Party, and Democratic Underground, want to give back.
........that is simple and clear.

Many of them, want only two things..."to take" .. and in taking... "get more wealthy"

To hell with those who do not have.."I want more, and more for me.." That is it..And that is what the tax plan just passed by Republicans is all about...And that is also simple and clear....

_____________________________________________________________________________________
My friend in the Original Post....went to the other country... "to help others" in the 70s..
.......not to take more for himself....pretty simple and clear..
.......very easy to understand, us vs Republicans.

[ProudLib72]

12. Another thing I remember from that program

It was hot as hell. For the first few days the temps were around 90 degrees, and I was dying. When I got back home I was telling people about how hot it was. As I was telling one of parents' friends who is Eritrean how there was no A/C, he said "Welcome to the rest of the world". I'll never forget that. He is usually the funniest, happiest guy around, telling jokes and laughing. This one time he was deadly serious. I sure as hell was embarrassed at letting my privilege show. At least he made me think.

[volstork]

13. I have had the privilege

of doing medical mission work in several countries in Africa and Central America, and I am always grateful for and humbled by the experience. We in America, for the most part, have everything, and only want more; what we have is never enough to slake our insatiability. The majority of the rest of the world live with so little, but seem (to me, at least) to be infinitely more happy and content. I have been given gifts by those I have been privileged to serve-- gifts that came from their poverty, that they could most likely ill afford to give, but that they gave freely and out of gratitude. It is moving and deeply humbling to be in the presence of those who are so grateful for things that so many of us take for granted.

Thank you, Stuart, for sharing your story.

[llmart]

14. Wonderful post...

I grew up in the '50's in a rather poor household and I rarely take what I have for granted. I continually tell my story to others and made it a point to tell my two children when they were growing up what it was like for me and my family because they had a very comfortable life. To this day, especially at Christmas, I tell them a story or two about my childhood so they might understand why I have always had a problem with the excess of Christmas. We usually got socks and underwear or flannel pajamas for Christmas, though there were some years we got a toy or a game. By the time you turned 13 you were not to expect a gift for Christmas since that was only for the little ones. My father wasn't the best of providers though he tried but in the bitter winters he rarely worked because his job was dependent upon the construction industry of which very little went on in the winters in a rural area of the snow belt. I believe his unemployment check was $60 a week (my memory may be off here) and there were nine of us in a tiny house with a coal furnace. I remember always being cold. My mother made huge pots of soup in winter because that would go a long way to feed everyone.

I don't advocate us longing for those days again, but I do wish our country would just cease the conspicuous consumption already. It hasn't led to anything good for our culture and if anything has made our lives less fulfilling.

[Stuart G]

15. About "conspicuous consumption" it magnifies greed.

If I have all of this and all of that well then I am better than you. I like the "coal furnace" We had one in both the "huge" apartment that we lived in when I was very young, and a later 2 story, 2 family apartment. The idea of consuming more just to be better has never passed my mind..I have plenty. More than enough.

When we as a society get into consumption just to have "more," then we got to have "more" and not consider giving some to those less fortunate. More, becomes....me, me, me

Learning to care about others is so important, because so many of us do not have enough to get by. Yes right here in the U.S.A. not enough to get by. Yes, not enough food, shelter, or clothing. Yes, right here in the U.S.A.

I could never imagine that I would be alive to see people walking down the street with hand held computers that double as telephones and calculators. And..in those hand held computers a person would have access to all the information in many libraries around the world. In 1970, I discovered "Star Trek" and that hand held computer stuff, was something just in the future..not anything I would see. Well it's here...

But in a strange way, the idea of "giving to others" is exactly the same as it was then. If it is in your heart, you will know. If it is not there, then it is not there.

[llmart]

16. I feel the same as you when I see everyone with the I-phones.

Up until recently I had no idea just how much these things cost, but then I heard how much the latest one was and I was aghast. Who the heck would spend that on a phone? (I know it's really a computer, but I still think of them as just a phone.) I know people who really don't make that much money but they have one. I want to ask them why? Why would you spend that much money on a phone and then pay a company to "connect" you?

I like to think that you can be taught as a child to care about others. I credit my parents in teaching me that. I have six siblings and we're all like that. None of us are materialistic at all. I have to wonder if parents are teaching their children any values about caring for those less fortunate. It bothers me a lot that our country just doesn't want to look at the long term effects of conspicuous consumption.