day 4 of the live below the line saw a bit of a stodgy jungle oats breakfast [not enough water, oops] which was microwaved and very easy to make… bit of margarine type substance to give it some flavour…
lunch was leftover soup/stew val made the other day – very tasty and yum cos of all the good veg in it…
then supper was REALLY nice – roasted veg:sweet potato, carrots and leftover butternut and then two pork sausages sliced and fried to add for taste and it was really a winner meal, best all week i think
ate well today and pretty tasty stuff – getting a bit of a better hang of it – don’t know that i have any lessons that came out of it and if you haven’t yet i would go and read my friend lisa’s comments on the whole week’s experiment which i link to over here.
i guess actually the one thing that stood out today was the friend vibe – it’s been a theme this week that a bunch of people hear what we’re doing and are “cool, we’ll take you out to eat” which in the context of this week defeat’s the object a little bit, but the idea of community being so much more important if a bunch of individuals don’t have much because pooling a small amount for a larger amount of people always works better – i remember as a bachelor trying to cook meals for one and it gets quite expensive or wasteful, but when there are four of you say throwing your R12 into the pot, then if you did that for a whole week you could get really creative and everyone would have enough.
the second aspect was the idea of inviting people round to play a game and not being able to offer snacks, drinks etc – fortunately in tonite’s scenario the one guy brought food and so we weren’t going to make them not eat it for the sake of our challenge so the three of them partook [what a word] but the idea that if you are living in a poor context, inviting people around for a meal probably holds less ampedness because of what you can’t offer… you’d think that at least but in my experiences in Kayamandi and Umtata and Malawi and Botswana [when i went as a child] and the Spanish community i visited in the States when i was there it was always the opposite – those with nothing always offer so much – they always give of their best – they are always completely generous – i have experienced this so many times in so many ‘poor’ contexts that i know it to be true…
so ja, one day to go, hopefully we have learnt some stuff – definitely been made aware of a bunch of things and going to give the money we would normally have spent on food to someone who needs it a lot more than us which is great. i think it has been good. but what lisa wrote is true. it’s nothing compared to what can and should and needs to be done.
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In a way I think the experience of noticing how much more people reach out to you to support you when you are in need – and vice versa – the fostering of community and compassion is a gigantic learning… in many ways greater and richer than the one of how-to-make-R12-fill-a-pot, which is really an exercise in thriftiness more than compassion. I’d say, accept the invitations, lean on those friends that offer shoulders – isn’t this the learning? that in poverty or affluence, our real wealth lies in how warmly and closely we relate to our communities, not in the number of coins in our pockets?
Look at Natalie’s Circle of Love (http://www.nataliescircleoflove.org./)… no one who’s rallied around can do the operations, perform a cure. And yet so much of the healing is in what people have offered, given, the sense of an embracing community that has arisen, which doesn’t only help Natalie – it helps and expands everyone that reached out to form it.
i agree, WHO IS UP FOR BUYING THE ANDERSONS COFFEE TODAY? yeah i hear you lisa and i agree with what you’re saying [especially the natalie stuff, been the same for my buddy Rob who has cancer, just seen the church [the people] stand up and be counted in the most amazing of ways which is what it is meant to be about so great when it happens – i think if this was our context that would be amazing but because it’s only a week endeavour then it would kind of defeat the object – i liked what you said in terms of the thriftiness vs compassion altho i still do think the awareness brings compassion with it – ah i like that real wealth line – it’s going straight to my twitter…
To play devil’s advocate, I wonder if somewhat pithy and warm statements like “in poverty and affluence our real wealth lies..” is something that is much easier to say when you are part of the relatively affluent as opposed to if you were part of the relatively poor? Do “the poor” feel the same way about the “warmth and closeness” of community when their stomachs are hungry and they have no way of filling it and their community, as loving as they may be, are in the same position and cannot offer any real comfort in terms of food and warmth and shelter? It sounds like a nice sentiment but then again, none of us have truly (i sincerely doubt) been physically hungry. When we have warmth and food and clean water and light and a place to lie down as a basis/foundation, then community is indeed a very nice addition and it could even seem to be that “All we need is love” but love, great as it is, is not sustenance for a hungry stomach. My point is, I have seen people on the streets literally fighting (throwing punches, screaming, swearing, kicking to the floor) over food. I have seen people fighting each other, fighting their own “community” (which on a better day they hang around with etc) for basic needs. When it comes to that level of desperation then I well imagine that the number of coins in your pocket supercedes any levels of “community” and relationship you have.
Yup, I hear your point there, Val. Yes, it’s impossible to function properly when you don’t have enough food to eat and a decent shelter over your head and the knowledge that you and your family will be safe. But what does this mean for those in the position of having-when-others-have-not? Does it mean having less will help others have more? Does it mean giving away some or much or all of what you have will less the have-not-ness? Or is it more complex than that? I don’t think guilt about what we have is the key to this. I think Jessica Jacklyn’s TED talk really opened up the issue for me: from 6 years old through to early adulthood, she experienced that torn feeling many of us feel about “the poor” – that we were supposed to help in some way by giving, but that the need to give would always be bigger than us. True in some ways, perhaps, but there are other ways into action and change. Please remember that I’m really not at all intending to diss the “Living Below the Line” project – it’s a huge gesture, and one that is stirring up all sorts of awareness in you and those around around you. Just kicking around some of the awareness stirred, is all 🙂