This is OT, but this post made me feel the need to share as it is loosely related.
I have gone several 'missions.' Not of the LDS multi-year variety, but rather just a few weeks at a time. Each time before I go, I think to myself how much I should be able to 'help' the people I'm going to visit. Each time I am again humbled that they gave me more than I could have ever given them.
While I had money to offer and some care and concern, as well.. I was severely lacking, in comparison to them, in what they could unintentionally teach me.
I could hand someone a hundred dollars for groceries (which to me was somewhat meaningless in the grand scheme of things), but I would witness an entire family pooling ALL of the food they could gather to welcome us and thank us for visiting... not knowing, nor worrying about, where the next meal would come from.
What I saw every time were a people happier than I was. More 'blessed' than I have ever been. I learned much from them.. and have forgotten too many of those lessons having been re-subjected to American measures of 'happiness.'
So as we're punching up or down, perhaps we think in terms of happiness and sadness vs. rich or poor, fat or skinny..
