Life lessons from a Mexican and a Man in a wheel chair

 

Recently I have been taught or re-reminded of what the important things in life are, and by two very different people. I don’t know if any of you have ever read articles by a newspaper journalist in Mexico by the name of Catón or Armando Fuentes Aguirre, but a coworker passed along to me an article of his in response to an edition of Fortune magazine in which the world´s richest people are listed. The original article is in Spanish, but I have translated it roughly into English, not claiming to be exact, but close enough that you get the idea. Here it is…

"I intend to sue the magazine "Fortune", because I was the victim of an inexplicable omission. The magazine published a list of the world's richest people, and in this list they did not show me. They listed people such as the Sultan deBrunei, and even the heirs of Sam Walton and Takichiro Mori. They also include personalities like Queen Elizabeth of England, Stavros Niarkos, and the Mexican Carlos Slim and Emilio Azcarraga.

But I am not mentioned in the magazine.

And I'm a rich man, immensely rich. And if not, then look: I have life, which I received and do not know why, and health, which I maintain but I do not know how.
I have a family; an adorable wife who in giving her life to me, she became the best part of mine; wonderful children who have given me nothing but happiness; grandchildren with whom I practice a new and joyful form of parenting.

I have brothers who are like my friends, and friends who are like my brothers.
I have people who sincerely love me despite my faults, and people I honestly love despite my own shortcomings.

I have four editors each day to thank because they read what I write poorly and make it into something good.

I have a house, and in it many books (my wife would say I have many books, and among them a house).

I have a bit of the world in the form of a garden that every year gives me apples that would have further shortened the presence of Adam and Eve in Paradise.

I have a dog that will not sleep until I come home and who treats me as if I were the owner of the heavens and the earth.

I have eyes that see and ears that can hear; feet for walking and hands that can touch; a brain that thinks of things that have already occurred to others, but for me they are brand new.

I own the common inheritance of men: happiness for sharing and enjoying, and sorrows that unite me with others who are also suffering.

And I have faith in God who loves me infinitely.

Can there be greater riches than mine?

Why, then did the magazine "Fortune" not put my name in the list of the richest men on the planet? "
And you, how do you consider yourself? Rich or poor?
There are poor people, so poor that the only thing they have is...MONEY"

For those of you Spanish speakers,I am listing the original article at the end of this entry, which is of course written better. I really appreciated the way Catón challenged the concept of richness in a creative, amusing and relatable way. It is true, that no matter who we are, how dirty our feet are, what job we have or don’t have, there is a common experience in all our lives of joys and sorrows; we all have them.

 

It took a Bolivian man to demonstrate to me an example of what I think is the most beautiful part of this ¨common inheritance¨ of joys and sorrows, and that is SHARING them. For the past two months or so, there have been a group of other-abled people camped outside the office of the Franciscan Movement of Justice and Peace.

The group ranges from people of the third generation to teenagers and little kids, all of whom have some sort of disability or are a close family member of someone who does. They are there in support of another group marching to La Paz, asking that the government follow through on providing social services or support for people with disabilities, in the form of money. The government says they are using the money in other ways to support them and they do not have enough to give financial support to everyone.

So each day that I go to Justice and Peace to work, I pass by and greet the people camped out in vigil there. Just the other day I was leaving and a man in a wheel chair called out to me. I turned around and went back to where he was sitting with a bucket in his lap. He put his hand in and pulled out a heaping portion of grapes and as he handed them to me said, “Of all the things I’ve learned in my life, I know that whatever we have, however small, we must share with others”.

 

I smiled at him and thanked him very much. I am not sure which provokes which: the joy that one has motivates them to share it with others, or the act of sharing brings both people joy? Either way, I was touched by his random act of kindness and I agree that sharing is one of the greatest most uniting acts, whether we share our sorrows or our joys, our abundance or our scarcity.

Artículo de Armando Fuentes Aguirre (Catón)
Me propongo demandar a la revista "Fortune", pues me hizo víctima de una omisión inexplicable. Resulta que publicó la lista de los hombres más ricos del planeta, y en esta lista no aparezco yo. Aparecen, sí, el sultán deBrunei, aparecen también los herederos de Sam Walton y Takichiro Mori.

Figuran ahí también personalidades como la Reina Isabel de Inglaterra, Stavros Niarkos, y los mexicanos Carlos Slim y Emilio Azcárraga.
Sin embargo a mí no me menciona la revista.
Y yo soy un hombre rico, inmensamente rico. Y si no, vean ustedes: tengo vida, que recibí no sé por qué, y salud, que conservo no sé cómo.
Tengo una familia, esposa adorable que al entregarme su vida me dio lo mejor de la mía; hijos maravillosos de quienes no he recibido sino felicidad; nietos con los cuales ejerzo una nueva y gozosa paternidad.

Tengo hermanos que son como mis amigos, y amigos que son como mis hermanos.
Tengo gente que me ama con sinceridad a pesar de mis defectos, y a la que yo amo con sinceridad a pesar de mis defectos.

Tengo cuatro lectores a los que cada día les doy gracias porque leen bien lo que yo escribo mal.

Tengo una casa, y en ella muchos libros (mi esposa diría que tengo muchos libros, y entre ellos una casa).

Poseo un pedacito del mundo en la forma de un huerto que cada año me da manzanas que habrían acortado aun más la presencia de Adán y Eva en el Paraíso.

Tengo un perro que no se va a dormir hasta que llego, y que me recibe como si fuera yo el dueño de los cielos y la tierra.

Tengo ojos que ven y oídos que oyen; pies que caminan y manos que acarician; cerebro que piensa cosas que a otros se les habían ocurrido ya, pero que a mí no se me habían ocurrido nunca.

Soy dueño de la común herencia de los hombres: alegrías para disfrutarlas y penas para hermanarme a los que sufren.

Y tengo fe en Dios que guarda para mí infinito amor.

¿Puede haber mayores riquezas que las mías?

¿Por qué, entonces, no me puso la revista "Fortune" en la lista de los hombres más ricos del planeta?"
¿Y tú, cómo te consideras? ¿Rico o pobre?
HAY GENTE POBRE, PERO TAN POBRE, QUE LO ÚNICO QUE TIENE ES... DINERO.

5 Things I am grateful for today: opportunity to share lunch with a friend; recovery of a Franciscan friend; fresh smelling clean clothes; pictures of my cousins´kids that make me happy whenever I look at them; getting running water back.

December, the month of gatherings

December has been a great month, full of gatherings for celebration and for mourning. The month started out with several deaths both here in Cochabamba and at home in Virginia, so there was a lot of sadness but also a whole lot of comforting and accompanying. One thing I admire about the rituals around death here in Bolivia is the immediate care and tending-to that friends and family provide. In addition to the wake taking place normally the same day as the death and the burial the day after, there is a mass 9 days after the death (for people who are Catholic) to again come together and honor the person’s life and comfort their loved ones.

While I was not present with my family for the death of my grandpa, I was there in spirit and was amazed at how much people came together to comfort my extended family—thank you to those of you who were there! The unity and caring for one another that comes out of experiences of loss shows me the beauty of the human spirit, and that is something we cannot forget. Not ever.

There were also many birthdays in December and here in Bolivia, a girl’s 15th birthday is particularly special because it marks the transition into a new phase of life. Not everyone likes to have a big party (fiesta de quince años) but some girls choose to celebrate with lots of people and beautiful dresses etc. One of the girls who has been staying at the Social Center recovering from bad burns, asked me to be the “madrina de torta” for her 15th birthday party. What does that mean? I would provide the cake for her party. I’ve made a cake before with some of the kids from the center and since we’ve known each other for quite a while now and have a good relationship, I agreed, thinking it would be for maybe 15 or 20 people. I was mistaken…later I found out that up to 70 people were expected, and being stubborn in wanting to make the cake instead of buying it, I had quite an experience of being madrina!

 

 

Three of the kids helped me out a lot with the cake and in the end it all worked out, but what a labor of love it was. I was so happy though to see her all dressed up in her fancy dresses, surrounded by people who clearly admired her courage for continuing to live her life and overcome adversities daily. The reason she is here is that she got electrocuted one day herding sheep. The electric company had not properly protected the cables and she stuck her stick into the grass and struck the cable which knocked her out completely and made her lose her arm and parts of her toes, among other complications. She continues to play basketball whenever I take them to the court and is definitely enjoying being a teenager. She teaches me that when the unexpected takes something away from you, that doesn’t mean that life ends there, rather you adjust and continue on.

 

Since it is the end of the year we went out with the group of volunteers of the radio program sponsored by Franciscans International-Bolivia, “Onda Verde” as a thank-you for their service. It was nice to be able to celebrate the 41 programs we put on in this year 2011. Here is a picture of almost all of us from Onda Verde.

 

Three months ago we started a second radio program in conjunction with Maryknoll, in which we talk about social and environmental issues. The show is called “Pulso” and is in a different radio station, Pio XII. Here is a picture of us in the studio.

 

Being December, we also had many Christmas celebrations, one taking place at the final soup kitchen Saturday lunch of the year. There were over 200 visitors for lunch, and beforehand there was an enactment of the Nativity story by the guests and we also had a carol singing competition between the boys, girls, women and men. It was fun to watch how some people got really into it, and even I got to learn the songs and dance around in a circle with the girls.

 

 

 

Here is a picture of “Mary” and “Baby Jesus”.

 

One of the Christmas traditions in Bolivia is dancing before the baby Jesus in the Nativity set, which I had been hearing about since last year but never actually seen. This year I got the opportunity to watch both kids and adults gather from the neighborhood and while some were drinking hot chocolate and eating buñuelos, others were playfully dancing and bringing each other before the baby Jesus.

 

 

It was so different than anything I had seen before, because the kids were not surrounded by toys as I usually see on Christmas morning, rather playing together and dancing with the focus being Jesus. A Christmas tradition I find a lot of value in and am grateful to have been a part of.

5 Things I’m thankful for today: health; safety of my loved ones; dancing; the new babies in-formation that will join my extended family this year; the hospitality of friends.