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Inspiration Comes In Small Packages… Kids, That Is

Kids. They continue to surprise me and sometimes blow my mind with their amazingly clear perceptions on everything from the environment to politics.

One thing I love about kids is that they don’t beat around the bush like adults–they tell you like it is. Adults spend an awful lot of time trying to tell you how it is without ever actually saying much.

Today, I spent the day in Geneva, Switzerland. A very beautiful, yet startling expensive city, I decided to walk instead of taking the bus..and in doing so ended up walking by an open air exhibit about kids and how they look at poverty and wealth.

The exhibit was the creation of a Swiss organization which is trying to address and educate the people of Switzerland and the world about hunger–in particular, hungry children.

In a series of billboards along the river Rhone, huge photographs had been blown up with captions written by kids.

The project involved thousands of kids from all over the world, who had to either submit a photograph or choose a photograph from thousands available. They had to choose a theme, either wealth or poverty, and choose the photo that best represented that concept. Then they wrote one sentence telling the viewer what wealth or poverty meant to them.

Here are some of the things kids said:

( Under a photo of a man, well dressed, in Burkina Faso)

Wealth is somebody who has a big villa, cattle, and has food to eat.”

(Under a photo of jungle-like forest in El Salvador)

” To me, wealth is a landscape full of trees and also water. Because, if we did not have those things we would not be on Earth. No one would be.”

(Under a photo of a small mud-brick house in El Salvador)

” To me, poverty is when people are squashed like sardines in small houses, and when they don’t have anything to eat.. but other people do.”

(Under a photo of a crying, dirty, street child in India)

” To me, poverty is when my brother insults me.”

(Under a photo of an electrical pole with cables in Guatemala)

“To me, wealth is to have this sight. Nobody has ever seen such a beautiful sight.”

(Under a photo of a man wearing only a loincloth, asleep on top of a bamboo cart in the middle of a trash dump in Bangladesh)

” To me, this photo represents poverty. A man, who has spent all day pulling his cart, has chosen his cart as a place to rest. He is sleeping under the sun in the dump because he has no house and no where to live.”

(Under a photo of a child pushing a shopping cart in a large Western-style supermarket, Dubai)

” To me, this child is wealth. They can go into this famous and expensive supermarket and get whatever they want, while others can’t even go inside the store.”

Kids can say things so simply. I find myself inspired by this simplicity and clarity.

I’ve been inspired by some other kids lately, too.

Alot of kids..and their parents read this blog. It runs the gamut from an 8th grade class in Arizona to homeschoolers in Nebraska.

It’s hard to have  a blog kids read, because I’ve got to make sure what I’m writing is suitable reading for them. (Although now I just put up a headline at the top that says ” Have your parents read this first! ” and an age minimum if the entry has something that I think might not be suitable for kids.., thanks to Deb S., junior high school teacher in Virginia for suggestion).

But there are some things I really like about having kids read this blog.

For one thing, it helps keep my accountable and on my toes..kids are smart and they don’t beat around the bush if they think something isn’t quite right about whatever I am doing. I like that. Kids help me stay on my path.

Another thing about kids is that they know what the really, big important problems are in the world and quite literally have no fear in saving the world. Unlike adults, who often find even phrases like “saving the world”annoying and intrusive.

The best part about having kids involved in the blog is that I get to hear about what they are doing, and how the blog is affecting them or inspiring them. A lot of the time, kids end up inspiring me just as much as I am inspiring them.

A good example of a group of kids that continue to inspire me are the Girl Scouts of Alabama. These girls sometimes read my blog…and their Girl Scout Leader is a devoted reader, too. (Who knew, when I started out writing the blog that I would have such an wide audience? But then that’s the fun of blog writing..)

So, the Girl Scouts read all about the Ngobe, back when I was in Panama. They loved the stories of me living with a tribe of people in the jungle, and they loved reading about all the dangerous things I did because I didn’t know any better. They watched me grow alot as a person, too!..Being more and more adventurous led me to strengthen some traits I’d been a little weak on before.

This particular troop of Girl Scouts loved the Ngobe so much that they have decided to adopt the Ngobe for “World Thinking Day” on February 22 of this coming year. All because of reading about the Ngobe right here, on truelifeplanet.

The theme this year is ” We can stop the spread of AIDs, malaria, and other diseases”.

Their idea is to talk with people about the relatively unheard of Ngobe indigenous group  and the problems that are facing them. What a great idea! So many of the world’s poor people would have more resources if only those of us in richer countries were more aware. Awareness kills the self-centered gene.  And, by the way..this certainly comes at an appropriate time, as the health of this indigenous group is in crisis, with  97% suffering from malnutrition and other serious, life threatening diseases.

So how many people will they be able to make more aware? Well, if they only found one..that’s one. That’s one more than there was before. Excellent.A miracle. But, knowing them, they will tell the story of the Ngobe and touch/inspire many, many people. Better than excellent. More miracles.

I love the fact that the Girls Scouts exist. I love the fact that there are girls being mentored out there, and because they are growing up confident, they are changing the world. I also really love that the Girl Scouts cross political and religious lines, and are a mix of girls from different backgrounds and beliefs. In a world where people can’t seem to get along ..it’s a good thing to see people–even kids–trying to find commonality instead of focusing exclusively on differences. This is a big theme of my blog–figuring out where to meet all the people I come across on my travels halfway, rather than insisting that they agree with me. (It’s not easy!)

I also heard about Maddie, a Girl Scout in Alabama who has taken the idea of leaving less of an imprint on the planet full steam ahead..by participating in a program in the States called, “Grow A Row”. The idea is to grow a garden, and give over a certain amount to your local foodbank or similiar charity. Grow A Row is an idea whose time has come..when many people in the USA are going to bed hungry at night, don’t have enough to feed their kids, and are turning to churches, misc non profits, and the foodstamp program to supplement their meager diets. You can find out more about this program by going to the link on the right hand side of this page under “America grow a row”.

I find Maddie’s idea inspiring me to take my life –and any future gardening plans–to another level. Here she is, “just a kid”, and she’s already spending alot of her time thinking about people other than her. Alot of people don’t even get around to even beginning to think like that until retirement.

Kids are like that. They push us farther than we thought we could go. They open us up to new possibilities, and sometimes remind us of principles we promised we’d live by at some point but forgot. They help to keep us from falling into the cynical trap and move mountains to show us that, yes, change is possible.

Because of the large kid readership, I’ve decided to add two new features on the blog.

One will be a of sites for kids (you’ll find it on the right hand side of this blog page)..I’ll keep adding as I find things that suit the kids who are reading..I’m trying to keep the focus on volunteering, social justice, and kids that are out there making  a dfference.

The second feature I am adding-which I am very excited about- will be a weekly entry focused on kids I meet in India. It will be interview style, like the trueplanetinterview style I have been doing, but with subject matter that interests–and is suitable–for children. I’m going to title these entries ” Truelifeplanet for kids” and I hope all my young readers will enjoy it.

Thank you for the continued inspiration.

gigi



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10 responses to “Inspiration Comes In Small Packages… Kids, That Is”

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  2. It is sad that so many Indians are not offended by the fact that even after 60 years of Independence we still have so much poverty and hunger in our society but by the fact that it is being depicted by a Westerner. If you have a look at the kind of movies that Danny makes, you will realize that it is far from the crap that comes out of the YashRaj & KJo factories. Trainspotting for example was not a movie I could sit through. I couldnt stomach it. He was showing his own country. So to blame him that he wants to show India in bad light is something I am not willing to accept.

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