Saturday, August 8, 2015

A Pilgrimage Reflection: The Divide

The Divide:

“There’s no me and no you, it’s just us.”
 Brother Ali - Us

Due to our extensive layover in Atlanta, Georgia, on our way to Brazil, we took a train into the city. The penury that seemed to permeate from the broken down buildings spoke to me. It made something I knew even clearer, and painfully unavoidable. There is poverty in the United States, too.

While in Atlanta, we visited the Coca Cola Museum because we had so much time. While there, I struggled with the idea that superfluous tours and museums exist while places like the outskirts of Atlanta exist, too. How can they both be so real? And although I don’t deny the fun that can be had in museums and aquariums, or the benefit of having fun with people you love, there is a vast divide between the two worlds.

Metro ride
to the city
Atlanta, Georgia
steel doors, impassive windows
$16
World of Coca Cola
$31.95
$25.95 + tax
tickets to the Georgia Aquarium
$16
get your own glass bottle of Coke, too!
buildings with scattered broken glass
layers of graffiti,
barbed wire
tumbling plastic bags.
$31.95
visit the sharks, jellies, and fishes
A dark woman,
walking down the center of a crumbling, austere road
the sun’s heavy haze beating down
A woman
on stage, thick velvety curtains rippling
the heavily choreographed lighting
as she speaks to a crowded auditorium...
“Enjoy the show!”
The dark woman
Walking only where it is deserted and desolate,
Passing old prison walls
Barricaded and decaying.

These questions forced me to reconsider my motives for going to Brazil. Was I going with a sense of superiority over the poor, heightening the current divide between people in our world? Was I going for the glorious side of things, to feel good about myself and then move on? Why are mission trips so often in different countries, far away? Why not organize a trip somewhere in the US? Is it harder to see so close to home? Is it easier to visit, think highly of ourselves for helping, for sacrificing ourselves for the poor, to feel like heroes, and never look back?

If I’ve learned anything from my experience in Brazil, it is that a pilgrimage is not meant to be a glamorous vacation, nor simply an excuse to travel to interesting or exotic places. There is poverty and need close to home. There are lives of sorrow and loss less than two days of air travel away. But I’ve come to the conclusion that the location of the pilgrimage doesn’t matter, as there is need in every corner of the world. What matters is that there are not feelings of superiority over the poor. During our trip we faced many challenges that helped us to avoid falling into that huge divide. We were forced to be needy, to think about our motives and forced to reconsider our lives and the people that we met. We had travel delays, no clothing or supplies but what we had in our carry-on bags for five whole days. All of this broke down the walls between us (people of privilege) and the people we thought needed our help.

            In the same way, the mindset that people experience challenges and hardships due to God’s anger or due to bad behavior also heightens the divide. What happens in our world isn’t all about good and bad and the consequences. We all start with equal access to God’s wealth and life, the things that matter. The separation and perceived superiority of those with material riches over the less fortunate (whether conscious or subconscious) must be shattered.


A Seed Sown:

            Upon our arrival to Nova Vicosa, we read the day’s Gospel to the houses that we visited with food baskets. On Thursday, the reading told us that although we have eyes, we do not often see the truth. Although we have ears we do not always listen. Along with this, we do not use our hearts to understand and to love fully. From this, I took the idea that on our journey and on other pilgrimages, it is important to fully use our eyes and ears to learn what God wants us to learn from our experiences. We must be open to these experiences and to God’s ways. We must not live blindly, but see God where he is and learn from him. It was a good starting message for the pilgrimage. 

            On Friday, the Gospel spoke about the parable of the seeds. The seed sown on the path hears the words of God without understanding and nothing is born of what he heard.  The seed on rocky ground hears the word and even receives it with joy, yet his passion is not long lived, he is uprooted when persecuted or troubled by the world. The third seed is sown among thorns, worldly anxieties and riches lure him away from the word of God. Finally, there is a seed in rich soil; he hears the word, understands it, and bears much fruit.

Chris Dawson, our trip leader, pointed out that, as people, we fluctuate between these stages throughout our lives. We are all of these seeds at some point. In order to commit to such a journey, we were the fruit bearing seed. More fruit will come if we return home, share our journey, learn from it, and make changes to our lives. If we let our journey be forgotten, stolen by the world, or if we don’t pay attention and try to understand it, it will have been wasted, the seed washed away. We have the capacity to forget, for our knowledge to be ripped away by the temptations and worries of the world, for what we have learned and seen to fade away. It is scary that we can do that. It is scary that we can move on from the wonders and miracles we discover about God.


Corruption:

            While in Nova Vicosa, I came upon two questions: Why is there so much poverty? What is being done to change it on a local level? Our hostess made clear that due to corruption in the local government, the poverty continues despite a few people, including her, that make food baskets every month or so. There is only so much that one civilian can do. Every four years there are elections for mayor. The politicians bribe the poor people for their votes with a little bit of money, and because the uneducated poor need the money, they are forced to accept the bribes. The politicians build things or provide some service to the poor during the election, but it is all a show for more votes. As soon as the elections are over, all the money from the Federal Government goes to wealthy neighborhoods, a sad and vicious cycle.

            Another story of disregard for those in poverty by those in institutional power came from the rural communities we visited on Sunday. A group of families used to make charcoal from wood; they sold it. However, the city said that they could not sell the charcoal any longer. According to our hostess, their livelihood was taken away for no reason at all.



On Poverty:


“I don’t wanna stand for justice if I’m not among the poor.”
Matt Maher - Heaven Help Me

Even in Nova Vicosa there is a heavy contrast between the rich and poor, evident through summer tourism and by the large mansions stationed above the beaches while many are still in need of basic necessities, like food. Here too, there is a wide gap between the two groups of people, made clear by the way the poor are treated by the rich politicians.

The meager bribes for votes and frivolous attempts at aiding the poor do nothing to close the divide. If one has the means to help others, taking advantage of them or giving a little money isn’t acceptable. One must fully invest with their roots like the fruit bearing plant from Friday’s Gospel. It is a challenge, but one must go to those in need, even live like them so as to understand and also to give love and to share faith. This investment to bring together people, as a community united under God, is why we had to go to Brazil, why we actually went to the rural homes instead of simply sending money from the safety of VT and of our privileged lives. We went to help them as much as to receive a new way of seeing the world and of seeing God in the world. To learn that in the Kingdom of God, “Whoever wishes to be great among you shall be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave.”

By experiencing the poverty and need of others, I have been considering what I previously thought of poverty versus what I saw. I thought of the type of people that can be seen at Soup Kitchens in the US, those in need of food aid. The people there range from well-dressed with cell phones to people who seem to only own what they are carrying. Who are we, really, to judge by appearance? In Brazil, too, there seemed to be a range of poverty. There were people with old TV’s, phones, refrigerators, and electricity; there were large families with the bare minimum, living in windowless shacks. But what do we expect to see when we think of poverty? For some reason, having electricity, running water, or even simply having the means of keeping ones food cold is thought of as privilege, but those things are necessary for survival. I feel that at first glance it is easy to pass those people by with claims that they are living fine, but compared to our homes, every family we went too needed our help, having a refrigerator does not mean they are living a life of privilege.



Environmental Concerns:

“We are a part of all there is and ever is to be.”
Matthew Witten - Connections

            I recently discovered a passion for environmental issues and how they affect both minority groups and those in poverty. I learned about a phenomenon where uneducated poor people, often oppressed and disrespected due to race, are the ones who are forced to live near toxic industries or areas that affect their health. From what I saw during the trip to Brazil I have learned more about how our actions toward those with limited power and money affect how their homes end up in environmentally unsafe areas. People that are poor, uneducated, unaided by the government, and often minorities, are left to deal with their own trash and refuse in addition to often being left with waste from near-by cities and polluting industries. They are given no money or aid and so the resulting consequences are waterborne diseases, mosquitoes, air pollution from burning trash, and large garbage dumps. These problems seem to stem from how the people are treated in the first place.

From this realization, if there is one thing you take away, let it be this. Everything in our world is interconnected. All of the problems that we face relate to each other, and you cannot solve one without considering the others. The pope mentioned this in his encyclical. Vermont Catholic Magazine paraphrased, “The encyclical presents the vision of an ‘integral ecology’ that highlights not only the interconnectedness of all created life, but recognizes how political, economic, social and religious values and decisions are interrelated and impact the way people live with one another on the planet and use its resources.”

Scientists can’t simply focus on climate change and on how we treat the earth and cause pollution separately from those who concern themselves with social justice. One issue cannot be address and another forsaken. And though now we are faced with so many complicated and seemingly separate issues, they must be addressed together, as the connected issues they are, issues that stem from a lack of respect for our earth and its people.

“Come dance with me
Over heartache and rage
Come set us free
Over panic and strange.”
Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros - Man on Fire



~Audrey
Junior Essex High School 

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