So Many Cousins

WE are all related. To the ugly. The beautiful. The kind. The desparate. And the boxtop? Consider among the separate pieces we are as individuals that we each have 2 parents. We each have 4 grandparents, 8 great-grandparents. Continue the math back 20 generations or so to about 1500 A.D. and each of us were related to 2, 339,904 different people at the time. Take that back a bit further when the numbers surpass the population of the world, and it means we are all related, cousins.

"Your offspring," he said to Abraham, "will be as many as the stars in the sky." And so might our ancestors.

Quilt Squares for Future Sails

"We are well instructed only by the words that God speaks to us personally. What instructs us is what happens from moment to moment." - de Caussade

"I don't want to be a great leader, I want to be a man who goes around with a little oil can and when he sees a breakdown offers his help. To me, the man who does that is greater than any holy man in saffron-colored robes. The mechanic with the oilcan, that is my ideal in life." -
Baba Amte (personal hero, created a home for lepers, recently died at the age of 93)

"God has given the universe a musical arrangement. He has placed the dissonant elements under the discipline of harmony that the whole world may be a symphony in his ears. He has orchestrated this pure concert of the universe." - Clement of Alexandria

The central question of faith is not, "Do we believe in God?" but "Do we know how much God believes in us?

Portrait of Kawthoolei, the Karen Nation

IN the universe of the peoples of the earth, the Karen are a 'globular cluster', that celestial fuzzy spot where, upon closer inspection, is comprised of thousands of stars. Each star is perhaps small, but because of the community, the reliance and interdependence of each, their light shines bright, making human hospitality more visible to the naked eye.

IN Karen language, the words 'you' and 'I' have no possessive forms. The lack of 'yours' and 'mine' are lived out in use. For example, If I have been using a particular pair of sandals, and leave them outside the entrance to a Karen house, another person might come along and not think twice about using them if needed. The shoes would come back. As is true of flashlights, bicycles, a candle, a pen, a piece of chalk. It's not stealing. It's simply that everything in public is for everyone public to use.

One Big Bright Pixel

• When can singing become stairs? Times when a melody is as though it were making a route to a second floor we had forgotten and moved us there.
  
• From a description of a Apple computer center invoice form describing a broken device and what God created us to be, however broken we ourselves may be: "One Big Bright Pixel".
  
• "The temple bell stops, but the sound keeps coming out of the flowers." - Basho
  
• A lesson plan for all those who's profession or volunteer commitment involve exuding comfort to the dying, to those in distress and pain: Pet a kitten. Your job is through touch and/or through your voice invoke a cat to purr and for the longest possible time.
  
• In Mae Ra Moe Refugee Camp, nothing is paved with certainty. The ground, like waiting, is covered with the dust and mud divots of 'maybe'.
  
• In the Buddhist monastery on the hill, the novices were left in charge because the abbot had to go to another camp. They found a way to put DVDs of Burmese cop shows on the television and turned on the generator. Some of my students joined. I don't know if the novices were reprimanded, but later that night, faithfully between 6:30 - 7:00, the gong again rang four times.
  
• My second year students completed their first English resumes. In the section heading "Work and Experience", being young people without "work experience", the following were listed, with a fun "marketable correctness":

cooked curry and rice (prepared community meals)
made pillows (designed bedding materials)
sold noodles
thatched roofs
raised pigs, chickens, ducks (specialized in animal husbandry)
collected cans, plastic, and paper for recycling (refuse elimination)
cut hair (barber, hair stylist)
built bamboo houses (construction engineer)
weaved baskets (crafted home furnishings)

"We are well instructed only by the words that God speaks to us personally. And what instructs us is what happens from moment to moment." - de Caussade

My Experience in Mae Ra Moe Camp

Written for my honored hosts at Mae Ra Moe Refugee Camp:

You might have seen a golawa around Mae Ra Moe the past five months, speaking really bad Karen language. That golawa would be me. My name is Scott. I was a high school teacher in America for 15 years. In 2005, I taught two years in China with the U.S. Peace Corps. After my time in China I decided that I wanted to work with refugee families who resettle in America. But I needed some experience. Mae Ra Moe was one of the few refugee camps that accept native English speakers as teachers to live and work within the camp. So I came to Mae Ra Moe last October to gain experience, teach English, and learn about the Karen refugee situation, as more Karen families are resettling in America.

Though I came to Mae Ra Moe camp to teach English, I felt each day that I was a student of everyone in MRM, as I learned more and more about Karen culture, language. Above all, camp residents have taught and inspired me. They have taught me a profound sense resiliency, hospitality and welcome, and hope – qualities people all over the world need, and certainly that my country needs. In short, I have found the camp to be a school for learning what it means to be human.

I have learned from Mae Ra Moe the value of resiliency. From the students who study by candle light for hours each evening, to the dedication of teachers at Number One High School who work long hours and for little available money to educate future generations, to families who use every resource they can and never waste these, I believe the people of Mae Ra Moe are models of a resilient spirit for the rest of the world. Camp residents have taught me that though SPDC may force you out of your Karen homeland, no one can ever take the Karen homeland out of your spirit.

I have learned from Mae Ra Moe residents the value of hospitality and welcome. Every day, I have been greeted my smiles, children who want to shake hands, and have been asked by residents who ask, “Will you visit me?” Every day, I have been invited to enter someone’s house as if I were a family member where I always found an open door, kindness, a sense of trust, and a gracious cup of tea. Through a deep welcoming spirit, the residents of Mae Ra Moe have taught me about the power of love that builds trust, builds community, and ends to fear and suspicion. It is that power of love that camp residents know that will one day replace the ‘love of power’ that poisons many places and governments in the world.

Finally, I have learned from Mae Ra Moe residents the value of hope. When I arrived on first night in the camp last October, I remember I couldn’t see anything. I simply followed the person in front of me. I trusted their direction as I walked over the bridge leading to the FEC dormitory. There are bridges in Mae Ra Moe, but not just bridges that pass over the river. Residents have taught me that there are also bridges symbolized in a hopeful spirit. There are bridges of celebration, of hope, where life will lead us, across voids of despair, doubt and uncertainty. In their faithful and patient hope, camp residents have taught me that God creates bridges for us, bridges of promise that we will continue to move towards home, if we will only keep moving forward.

Resiliency. Hospitality. Hope. These are three gifts I know that the Karen people I have met in Mae Ra Moe treasure and can continue to share with the world, whether they are shared in the camp, in Karen state, or in future life in a resettled third country. Camp residents of Mae Ra Moe have taught me that whatever we may do, we know that we will do it for good in the world. And because and through us, God’s love may be known.

"It began in mystery,

and it will end in mystery,

but what a savage and beautiful country lies in between." - Diane Ackerman

Directions

On a walk in the green hills above Langmusi village in northern Sichuan, cross the stream rock bridge. Then, turn left. Follow the sheep about a mile and over two hills. Then turn right. You will see a herd of yaks near a tent. The tent is a black tent of yak hair. It is secured by stakes where two barking Tibetan mastiffs let you know you have arrived. Then above the barking, will come a "hello!" A young 12-year old shepherdess will wave her arms and invite you into her family's tent as she knows it. But she doesn't follow. The blankets, the smell of sod, butter tea, wet boots. Outside, three young children will gather around Ren Xin Qiao, who minds dogs, yak and small children with the skill of an experienced shepherd. Still, in her Mickey Mouse shepherding uniform, and letting her little cousins wrestle each other playfully, she will take time to teach you how to use a slingshot to coax back a wayward yak. The slingshot - a simple long piece of rope with a piece of leather tied in the center where she places a perfectly weighted stone and throws with great accuracy. The Goliath of a yak, hit with the stone, stops in its tracks and wanders back to the fold. Ren Xin Qiao teaches slingshotting as patiently as a David of scripture would, not simply recounting personal achievements of killing Goliath, of being related to Jesse, Abinadab at the war front, or the marriage to King Saul's daughter. Out here in the tent, they don't know about front page headlines. Humility is at work in the shepherd who teaches you how to use a slingshot. You can try and get the hang of throwing the stone, and if like me, you end up throwing your own ineptitude around, hitting oneself with the stone. Ren Xin Qiao will then invite you to have tea with her family. And here is God at home among the tent of where true hospitality lives and breathes and throws kindnesses around to any passing soul. In Genesis 18, it is said that God came to Abraham's tent as "three visitors" who were welcomed by Abraham with the best that he had. And too, in the story, perhaps it was not only God who visited, but God who waited and waits at the tent, saying hello among the barking dogs, motioning each of us to visit, to have tea, to use a slingshot, and being on the road, know the meaning of home again.

If we do nothing else in life, let us try to do one simple thing: generate shade.

For

“for” written by class 2, Sichuan College of Education (my students from Peace Corps China)

For my parents calling me every weekend or when I am in a bad mood
My roommates looking after me
For the care of my tutor
For my eyes to see the colorful world
My friend Sue for helping me with my resume
For the college for the opportunity to do teaching observation
For the apple Jessica gave me yesterday
For my pen
For my glasses for helping me see clearly
For the boss of the cookie shop for his delicious cookies he made
For friendship
For the courage that my parents gave me
For people who hurt me, that have helped me to learn to be myself
For my grandpa who passed away last year
For my cat
For an exam, because after it, we will have holiday
For the light/lamp
For water and food
For parents hard work
For friends advice and help
For my mother’s good cooking
For the breakfast my roommate bought me this morning
For the warm weather
For having a good sleep last night
For watching a movie
For world peace
For the sunshine
For life that will be better and better
For the books I have read
For thinking about today
For breakfast
For what I learned from others
For an honest listener when I was sad
For God who created a colorful world for us
For my parents who give me the birth
For my teachers to give me lessons
For all the things my sister did for me
For salt that makes food more delicious
For my brother who helps me carry something
For my grandmother when she gives me some cake
For the chance to think about comfortable things I am thankful for
For my mother’s smart hands which made sweaters for me
For my health
For my roommates that wake me every morning and tell me which classroom I will go to for class
For the person who made the handbag that is on my leg because it is very beautiful
For my mobile phone so I can contact with my friends and family
For God who arranges my destiny
For my father who leads me into a bright future
For my younger brother who stayed with me in my childhood
For my boyfriend who helps remind me to be happy
For my relatives, my friends, my happy childhood, for teachers, classmates, the college
For my bed that gives me a sweet dream
For my motherland where we can grow well in her arms
For God who gives us sunshine
For nature that gives us water
For the computer that makes the world communicate easily
For knowledge that makes us understand
For electricity that makes the world bright
For the joy of a dog
For everyday
For my friends that help and support me when I am in trouble
for my roommate who takes my books back to the dormitory
For for

“if the only prayer someone ever said was ‘thank you’ that would suffice.” – meister eckhart