Oreos and Mosquito Nets

When I was a small child, I wished that there would be no pain. I wished there would be no hungry children, no bad people to cause harm, no disease, no broken bones. I read so much and came across so many examples of what seemed like pointless suffering. I saw my parents and others just going through life as if it did not exist. That seemed so crazy to me. How could you just eat a corn dog at the air show like nothing is wrong?  Don't they know there is real suffering out there?  Oh yeah, I thought it was my job to explain to them what we should be doing to stop the suffering.

Yes, I became the annoying little monster at the dinner table. I put up kindness posters that I made myself. I would mention at the dinner table that we should be ashamed of ourselves for not mailing our dinners to a child in Africa. I even refused medication once, insisting that there were children in the Amazon that needed them. I was that child. I really believed that if everyone would just listen to me, we could cure all of these problems..

Now I know. There is a balance. There has to be. I cannot mail all of my meals and medicines to children in other countries.  I teach my children of the current issues. I tell them that it is more than poverty. There is not one magic solution. One meal is just that. A meal. That person will be hungry again. We have contributed to building a source of fresh clean drinking water. We have sent mosquito netting and I explained the diseases that mosquitoes spread.

When we were packing up countless boxes to send to our soldiers overseas, my heart filled with pride. These girls were making sure that each and every box had a package of Oreos.  They said that canned foods and black socks may be what they asked for, but that everyone had good thoughts when they ate Oreos.  They are probably right. I cannot recall a time when I saw someone eat an Oreo cookie with a frown, or scowl.
  
I am so grateful that we write down these moments. I need to hold on to that feeling of goodness.  I need the mental picture of each child carefully packing and inspecting the boxes to be sure that nobody was left out.  I often refer to those moments when these same children act like it is the end of the world when they dont get something they want.  It reassures me that they are not Veruca Salt, that somewhere inside, they know that most things just are not that important. I know that deep inside, they can sympathize and find compassion for suffering they could not possibly understand.