Famine of feeling

Here is the commentary I read to kick off the May 22 show:

One morning last week, I was lying in bed staring at the ceiling, feeling anxious about the things on my to-do list – something university students, with their procrastinating ways, are prone to do. Unfinished papers, research work to do for a professor, a thesis to get started on. All manageable, small concerns, but they were troubling me nonetheless.

Then the phone rang.

A voice called out over a crackling line, “Hello, Mr. Mark.”

It was Victor, an old friend from my time in Ghana. He had lost his job, and couldn’t afford the school fees for his daughter. He asked if I could send some money so she could finish the term?

I said yes, and hung up the phone after a brief conversation.

Rather than return to bed, I made a cup of coffee and read the morning Globe and Mail. Burma and China still dominated the headlines: thousands of children died when schools collapsed in the Chinese earthquake.

My own concerns suddenly seemed so small. I sent Victor some money and also made a donation to the Red Cross relief fund.

But the next morning, I was still wide-awake at 4 am, preoccupied with my relatively ordinary concerns.

Human beings have big hearts, but I’m often struck by our limited capacity to truly emphathize with the world at large. Most us remain preoccupied day to day with our little worlds – our families, friends, and co-workers. Every so often, we awaken to the outside world – a call from a poverty-stricken friend in a developing country, or an earthquake in a place like China.

I often wonder I could keep the concerns of the world always top of mind.

Buddhists have a form of mediation called metta practice. Metta means “loving kindness.” The idea is to meditate on the compassion you have for yourself, your family, friends, and even enemies and strangers. Some Buddhists believe this practice can actually have a healing effect on people a world away.

Last night, I meditated with a group in the north end. We were asked to include the suffering people of Burma and Myanmar in our practice.

Personally I have a difficult time actually feeling that compassion, and an even harder time believing it really does any good. But I suppose people must be credited for at least trying to transcend the cares of their own families and immediate communities.

Tom Hayden is an anti-poverty activist and well-known leader in the 1960s student movement. He says we must care for the entire world, not just the world around us. In reference to the persistent poverty in the developing world, he says the affluent West is suffering from a “famine of feeling.”

On the show tonight, we’ll speak with someone who is certainly not suffering from a “famine of feeling” when it comes to China. Li Song is here to talk about a fundraising campaign for the victims of the Chinese earthquake. She is from China and a graduate of UNBSJ.

Also on the show tonight: James Wilson, the Hampton photographer who is on the shortlist for this year’s Strathbutler award for excellence in the arts; and Ashley Durkle, who won this year’s Aliant Business Pitch competition for her plan to start an organic hops farm.

Listen to the entire show at: serfcity.mypodcast.com

- Mark