(no subject)
I'm leaving tomorrow for Guatemala, to help people in a place called Chichicastenanga. We are building schools and I am helping install computers in these schools. I think everyone should help other people. It's good for the world. You don't have to go to other countries to help people... you can help the "bum" on the corner who is digging through the trash for food - buy him a burger or a burrito (I just did this last week...). Or you can teach little kids how to tie their shoes. Or you can help the ubiquitous old lady across the ubiquitous street. Just help somebody. Do the pay-it-forward thing. You could help the world, or, if that's too much for you, you could help another human being. I don't really have anything to say that hasn't been said so many times before... but I urge you to act on these suggestions. Start small if you must, like I said, but do something. The world needs it.
*sigh* I hate preaching. I have all these great ideas about how things could be better. I love to make people happy. When you see the look in the face and in the eyes of a person that you have helped, truly helped... There's nothing like it in the world. My cousin and I went to get a burrito at some taco shop off of Fletcher in La Mesa a few days ago. We saw this guy, anywhere from early to late 20s, digging through the trash in the shop, grabbing leftover food off the trays that people had thrown away... So we offered him a burrito. Anything on the menu. He got a carne asada burrito (of course, what else is there to get? does the menu even offer anything else?). We talked to him quite a while as we ate. We didn't figure out how long he had been homeless, but he smelled of alcohol, and may have been into other drugs as well. Over the course of conversation, it came up that he said he "knew he had problems," and hardly deserved what we gave him. He may have had some behavioral problems.
When we finished and got up to leave, we said our goodbyes, said good luck, he promised he would check into a hospital the next day (His excuse for not going then was that it was a Saturday, and he's only allowed to stay there 3 days before they kick him out, and no one helped him the last time he was there on the weekend). All that aside... As we got up to leave, he put his hands together in a praying fashion, bowed his head slightly and said thank you, in that "this means more than you can know" way. The fashion in which he said goodbye... struck me somewhere... I assume he's never been to Thailand, and probably doesn't know much about their culture... but that exact hand gesture and head bow is how Thai people thank each other and say their goodbyes, accompanied by "khap khun khrap" (simply meaning thank you very much)... And since I first saw the people in Thailand do that, I thought it was the most sincere, most honest, most genuine way of thanking and showing one's appreciation. It's the same way I said goodbye to the family we stayed with in Thailand, and it has meant so much to me. It's an interesting coincidence that that man thanked us in the same way. He could never know it, but that showed so much... gratitude.
I don't really know what I'm getting at. I want to say "I want the world to be a better place" "We're all in it together"... such tired cliches, hardly any meaning anymore. But I want you to get past those cliches... get past the same old meaning. Or better yet, rediscover it. Take it to heart. MAKE THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE. TRULY BELIEVE WE ARE ALL IN IT TOGETHER. So what are you going to do? Better yet, WHEN are you going to do it? What? Tomorrow? Next week? No, NOW! DO SOMETHING, AND DO IT SOON
*sigh* I hate preaching. I have all these great ideas about how things could be better. I love to make people happy. When you see the look in the face and in the eyes of a person that you have helped, truly helped... There's nothing like it in the world. My cousin and I went to get a burrito at some taco shop off of Fletcher in La Mesa a few days ago. We saw this guy, anywhere from early to late 20s, digging through the trash in the shop, grabbing leftover food off the trays that people had thrown away... So we offered him a burrito. Anything on the menu. He got a carne asada burrito (of course, what else is there to get? does the menu even offer anything else?). We talked to him quite a while as we ate. We didn't figure out how long he had been homeless, but he smelled of alcohol, and may have been into other drugs as well. Over the course of conversation, it came up that he said he "knew he had problems," and hardly deserved what we gave him. He may have had some behavioral problems.
When we finished and got up to leave, we said our goodbyes, said good luck, he promised he would check into a hospital the next day (His excuse for not going then was that it was a Saturday, and he's only allowed to stay there 3 days before they kick him out, and no one helped him the last time he was there on the weekend). All that aside... As we got up to leave, he put his hands together in a praying fashion, bowed his head slightly and said thank you, in that "this means more than you can know" way. The fashion in which he said goodbye... struck me somewhere... I assume he's never been to Thailand, and probably doesn't know much about their culture... but that exact hand gesture and head bow is how Thai people thank each other and say their goodbyes, accompanied by "khap khun khrap" (simply meaning thank you very much)... And since I first saw the people in Thailand do that, I thought it was the most sincere, most honest, most genuine way of thanking and showing one's appreciation. It's the same way I said goodbye to the family we stayed with in Thailand, and it has meant so much to me. It's an interesting coincidence that that man thanked us in the same way. He could never know it, but that showed so much... gratitude.
I don't really know what I'm getting at. I want to say "I want the world to be a better place" "We're all in it together"... such tired cliches, hardly any meaning anymore. But I want you to get past those cliches... get past the same old meaning. Or better yet, rediscover it. Take it to heart. MAKE THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE. TRULY BELIEVE WE ARE ALL IN IT TOGETHER. So what are you going to do? Better yet, WHEN are you going to do it? What? Tomorrow? Next week? No, NOW! DO SOMETHING, AND DO IT SOON