Tragedy

Why doesn't the whole world stop in the face of tragedy?
I have always wondered it. It is always the first question I ask my mother, with the tears streaming down my face and my body trembling. I ask her: how can anyone expect anyone else to function? To get things done?

When tragedy strikes, it always leads to questions. For the religious, they question their faith, their god(s), their path in life. For the nonreligious, they might question fate or chance. Some people might even just shrug their shoulders, claiming the inevitability of life's end. But that doesn't seem GOOD enough of a reason.

So, why doesn't the whole world stop in the face of tragedy?
Why does every minute keeping beating on? Why does the sun rise and the moon swell? Why does the tide go out and come back in? Why are children born? Why do the church bells ring? Why do people fall in love? Why does the collective breath of all the people in the world go in and go out and go in and go out? Why do the minute and the practical still have deadlines, still need to happen? Why do dogs wag their tails and birds chirp and the alpha wolf howl?

How can anyone continue forward when it feels like time should stand still?

And it makes me angry, when tragedy happens. Because it shouldn't have happened. And it makes me sad, when tragedy happens. Because whether they are close to your heart or far from your knowledge, we are human and we feel the bond snap. And it makes me confused, when tragedy happens. Because why would such a thing happen, this heartbreaking, arbitrary, horrific thing?

My mother always tells me, that no matter what, she has to raise her children. She has to get up and get going. She has to eat food and drink water. She has to take a breath in and a breath out. She has to send emails and go to work on Monday and kiss her children good night.

At first, that always makes me upset. It feels like we are leaving them behind, as we march on in life. It feels like forgetting, denial, and unwillingness to acknowledge the person and the life they had. But I know she is right. I will finish this, and then go to lunch. But in my mind and in my heart she will reside. Just like I always carry a touch of sad and remembrance for all the people that have left before.

She will not be forgotten. She will not be unloved. She will be here within us and around us as we continue with our lives. Because we must live. It is not a right, but a duty, to live a life that we can be proud of and to be inspired by.

I don't know if understanding tragedy is ever possible. I don't think that even if we understood it on a rational plane, that we would be able to come to terms with it in our hearts. I think tragedy is beyond our reach. The best we can do is come together, and to look at each other and say: I don't understand.

And we will be a collection of the lost, holding tight so no one feels as if they have to face tragedy alone. And we will build a circle around the person that we have lost to tragedy, and around their family and their friends, so they don't feel alone and lost. That's the best we can do as people, when tragedy happens.

Dedicated to the Knox student we lost today. All of our prayers and thoughts are with you and your family.

Undoing Racism: Reflections

Hey everyone! So, it's been a couple of days, but I am really excited about this blog. My friend Simone graciously agreed to share her experiences about her work with Students Organized Against Racism (SOAR) at her university. This week, the group held a workshop about undoing racism, which covered three days of preparation, a workshop, and reflections.

Racism as a social construct isn't as old as one might believe. Racism based upon the color of your skin came about as the colonialists in the Americas looked for ways to justify slavery, especially as slaves became  almost exclusively of African origin. However, the idea that someone is BETTER and someone is WORSE based upon aspects of their ethnicity, gender, religion, and socioeconomic class is probably as old as civilization itself.

As we become increasingly globalized, cultures and differing populations are finding themselves in conflict over their differences. Workshops like Undoing Racism work hard to find the common humanity we all share. So, I share with you the thoughts, descriptions, and feelings from Simone. I myself have not gone through the workshop, but it does raise important questions about race, differences, acceptance, and humanity. Some questions as you read along could be: what is racism? Do I see racism around me? How can I myself learn to be more accepting? What do people have in common?

Pre-Workshop:

Basically I am doing this workshop because I am a member of Students Organizing Against Racism and this is one of our major events of the semester. Personally I am doing this because I believe that racism can be undone in an individual's mind and that making a difference with the individual is the first place to start major social change. In the workshop we will most address the misconceptions and misunderstandings that institutional racism has caused in the United States specifically. We will focus some on the New Orleans community as well, but we will not go beyond the US in terms of racial analysis. SOAR the group was started on campus in response to blatant racial events in 1999, but we believe that both blatant and subtle racism are equally as damaging in their ability to dehumanize us all.

Workshop Structure:

The workshop is a discussion-lecture style with about 20 students involved in SOAR, the two co conveners of SOAR and 2-3 professionals from The People's Institute (who offer these workshops) http://www.pisab.org/. The leaders in this organization have varying years of experience in organizing against racism and are from different backgrounds. One of ours was a woman who currently lives in New Orleans and the other was a woman who lives in Seattle. They have some set curricula, but they like to alter their lesson plans based on the type of group they are dealing with.

Post Workshop:

The last day was today and I thought it was the most important day because yesterday we spent a lot of time deconstructing some really important ideas and I left pretty unsettled and confused but when I came back today we really got to see those ideas come back together in a new way which made a lot of sense and I had several "Ah Ha!" moments during the day. We had breaks for lunch when we got to talk and bond with the other members and leaders. But most of the time was spent discussing with our peers and working out some of these really tough social constructions in our heads. We deviated a lot on the second day spending time going through some oppressive structures that are present at Tulane and we all had a lot to contribute to that discussion. In general I thought it was a really worthwhile experience and we also held it in an off-campus community center which I think was important because we all felt safe speaking how we felt.

Comments:

Miles* one of our co-conveners voiced some of his frustration that there weren't enough people of color and low socio-economic status in the room and it was hindering our discussion in several ways. But he also admitted that this was one of the hardest workshops for him (and he has been to quite a few) but they all will manifest themselves in different ways. I thought the pace of this one was good, however it is hard to get members to be all present for the long time spans of the whole three days and it really important that people be there for the whole time.

Reflections:

For me personally: I had to come to terms with a lot of realities of being biracial upfront which I have never really done before. I'm still processing most of it but I left feeling empowered and relieved.

Both Simone and I are biracial, which comes with it's unique gifts and problems. But, even if you are not multiracial or coming from a background that, historically, did not suffer excessive racism, I think one can learn a lot from racism/diversity workshops. From my understanding of dealing with diversity, I think that it's the complex process of both acknowledging/celebrating differences and at the same time seeing our similarities. 

When I feel like a race, or gender, or religion is so different from mine, they couldn't possibly understand me, I remember that on Thursday night, I had cried. And somewhere in the world, someone who on the surface is so different from me, cried too. Among the winding roads, the towering skyscrapers and dark, starry sky, the churning oceans, the boundaries of language, we cried together. It is this common humanity, the fact that we all cry, and we all love, and we all dance, and we all laugh, and we all are born and we all will die, that ties us together.

So, to me, undoing racism is to push through what seems like differences, and see ourselves as human rather than just White or Black or Asian or Female or Male or Christian or Muslim.

I want to thank Simone, my dearest friend. She is a wonderful, thoughtful, and engaged human being, and I deeply appreciate not only her dedication to service, but the fact that she took time out of her life to share her story with me. If you are interested in doing something like this in your own community, check out the above mentioned website: http://www.pisab.org/

Mucho Love,

Celinda

*His name has been changed, since I did not interview him. Saving my butt, and protecting him, for the WIN :D

Issues of Superiority: Part I

One of the hardest aspects of volunteering, I believe (though it may not be true for everyone) is learning to give and to change without feeling superior or pity, especially if you are working with people afflicted with poverty, disability, educational differences, and the ilk.

I've been striving, especially as I volunteer at the Boys and Girls Club, to see the kids as they are: kids. It's easy, to see the haves and have nots, the differences, the advantages vs. the disadvantages. Suddenly, my upper middle class education simultaneously makes me suffer from superiority and guilt. However, I challenge everyone to feel neither.

We should feel thankful for what we have, because those things give us the tools to make a difference. We should feel thankful, because a full belly, a warm bed, a loving family, and the ability to speak your mind are truly gifts.But, we should never feel that those gifts make us better (or worse) than anyone else.

The question then becomes, how does one volunteer without belittling who you are helping? The answer lies in respect and in compassion. Confucius is quoted as saying, "Without feelings of respect, what is there to distinguish men from beasts?" and it's an apt saying. Basically, without respect, we are treating whoever we are working with as less than human. I'm a firm believer that every person deserves your respect until they have proven otherwise. Some might see this general "benefit of the doubt" mentality as naive. Well, that could be true, but I think it's the only way one might succeed at volunteerism.

So, as I continue, both in my own work and studying the works of others, I propose two questions to my lovely readers:
1) What does it mean to be "charitable"?
2) How do you volunteer or do charity work WITHOUT a sense of superiority?

I'm hoping that in the next couple of days, I will begin to present the volunteerism of a number of people. I will also be doing more blogs of the philosophical nature (lawlz), like: What motivates people to do good? Are there solutions to problems, or is our role to alleviate the symptoms of those problems? etc.

Alrighty, signing off, but I will (hopefully! but we all know how it goes with me) blog tomorrow!
Muchos Love,
Celinda

Idealism and Volunteerism: A Rebeginning

So, I haven't written a blog in months

I don't really have a reason for not writing. I guess I got busy, but that doesn't seem to be a good justification. I guess I got disheartened by the fact that it didn't just take off and I didn't get instant gratification. But, one of the hardest lessons I have been learning is that I should do things JUST for the sake of doing them. That translates to learning for learning's sake, dancing for dancing's sake, volunteering for volunteering's sake, and blogging for blogging's sake.

I would like to take a step away from the deeply-rooted idealism that I held in the first two blogs. The reason I'm doing that is because idealism can be overwhelming. I wanted to change the whole world. I wanted to be a revolutionary and positive source for the public welfare. But, I can't do that as an individual.

One of the most humbling things to realize is that you are just one person. However, this doesn't mean that I can't be a positive force for change. What it means is that my change is going to be individualistic, and only one person at a time. I do wish for world peace, that people don't go hungry, that women and girls would be treated as equals (not better or worse), that every child could receive an education, that war would cease, that love would prevail, and that we worked for the common good.

But, I am only one person.

So, this blog is now going to become a forum for the PERSONAL stories and struggles to bring about a better world. I would love to expand to the far corners of the world, someday. However, I am going to start with myself, with the people I go to school with, and with my friends and family at other locations. I hope to build a network of good works, fresh ideas, personal testimonies, and good advice. I hope to provide resources, not by searching the vast internet, but by drawing upon personal references.

I leave you with two thoughts to consider, as we continue forward.

"If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other"
-Mother Teresa
As you go through your personal odysseys, remember that we are striving for a world in which people treasure the human collective, for we are precious.

"A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has"
-Margaret Mead
It is easy to be disheartened in the path of good works, because it seems to be a Herculean task. But, instead of trying to necessarily change the world, change what is front of you, for that is a microcosm of the world. Enough microcosms equals the world.

So, let's begin anew.

Much Love,
Celinda