Envy and Apples

Since being in Moldova, I have been able to look at our country from an outside perspective. Generally, Americans are very locked up in a cycle of envy. For instance, parents tell children if they really want that TV for their bedroom, then they should save up their money and buy it themselves – after all this will build character. Shouldn’t we be building the character of our children by instead encouraging them to save money to donate to a favorite charity? We cling to our US Weekly magazines instead of obsessively reading up on relatively ignored atrocities that are occurring right beneath our eyes. We even envy tradition, so we do things like take away the happiness of others so we can at least have something that belongs to us (ahem, Proposition 8). Have you ever asked yourself why most children know more about Santa Claus than Jesus Christ? I believe that the answer is because Santa Claus is ours – he’s an American tradition. As much as many Americans might want to, we can’t claim Jesus as our own.

What if, instead of all of this envying and coveting, we all began to grow generous with what we had? Here in Moldova, if someone comes to visit you, you offer them a meal even if it means you might not eat the next day. One day, when I was walking home from school, I saw one of my students pick an apple off of a tree for himself. Before biting into it, he heard me coming behind him, so he turned around and offered me the apple. I said, “No, that apple is yours. You picked it yourself.” He then told me, “No. I picked it for you.” I was confused, but I took the apple because I didn’t really know how to continue the conversation with my limited Romanian. When I got home, I thought more about the situation. He really did pick the apple for himself, but as soon as he turned around and saw me, he had picked the apple for me. Six months ago, this concept would have made absolutely no logical sense to me, but for some reason, now having lived here for this long, it makes perfect sense. Even if there were no other apples left on that tree, he still would have given it to me.

So, shouldn’t we all be giving away our apples? In America, whether we are privileged or not, we all have access to a mindset of individuality to which the vast majority of us subscribe. As a result, we often forget about the lives of others (and to be honest, more often than not, we get so caught up in other insignificant things that we even forget about our own lives!). We justify our comfort by donating percentages of our bonuses to charity, forwarding desperate emails about kidnapped children, or filling our children’s backpacks with Spaghettios for the canned food drive twice a year. We should not stop doing these things – they are great and they do create a positive impact. But unless we started the charity, found the kidnapped child or coordinated all of those canned food drives, are we really creating change? Will we even get to the day when we won’t need charities, Amber Alerts or food drives? Probably not – however, if we all picked apples for others rather than for ourselves, we’d definitely be on the right track.

Listen to this...

He's a bit too dramatic for my taste, but he's got some great things to say... and backed with proof and examples! Gotta love it.

PICTURES!

I've uploaded some new pictures from my site and a Halloween Party I had with my students. Go here to check them out: http://picasaweb.google.com/mwmoran/Moldova#

I'm Happy

... and I have 2 minutes to use the computer. I am very pleased with the Obama win and I am excited about the upcoming changes our country will see as a result.

Just finished a very long week in Chisinau doing an In-Service Training where I had to attend sessions, facilitate a couple and get a lot of logistical things tied up.

Will update more later.