September 8, 2008

Random thoughts driving around the streets of India . . .

Driving around the streets of India causes me to realize that I am really confused about India. I was told about the immense levels of poverty, but never realized how confusing the juxtaposition of dirt and beauty coexisting in one land can be.
I have an entire different vibe when driving about in India. I feel like eighty percent of what I see is hungry families living in villages, but I feel so much love and culture. Driving in LA is the opposite, eighty percent of what i see is clean and organized- but I rarely a vibe of love or culture.
I sat in the car and stared at colorful clothes, beautiful children, and protective parents and wondered how I could feel such a sense of contentment from what was really in front of me. Empoverished bellies, scars, straw huts, and hard labor is what was really in front of me.
This caused me to realize that although Mother Theresa once quoted " The hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread".. a hungry heart is truly as deadly as a hungry stomach.. both will kill you. The western world lacks spirituality- love.. while the Eastern world lacks so much technology. The greatest paradox is to understand how these two can coexist. Neither world will truly progress until this paradox is solved.