World Beginnings

Jesu was 19 years old when Katherine Spry and I met him in the North of Sri Lanka during the long-running civil war. The year was 2005 and the area was considered out of bounds by the US Embassy and our school but we forged ahead, emboldened with countless gin and tonics and our idea to brighten the weekend for the girls who had recently been freed from the LTTE, Liberation Tigers of the Tamil Eelam, by the UN. Jesu's father had been murdered by the Sri Lankan military, right before his eyes a few years earlier and his mother had secured him a place with Father Paul, a Jesuit priest, for his safety. Unfortunately, Jesu had finished school and was now being pressured to become a priest or leave the compound. Leaving Father Paul’s was extremely perilous because the Tamil Tigers were still capturing young people to serve in their rebel ranks. And there was always his father’s fate as well, just waiting for him. Jesu is a gifted linguist and spoke excellent English, Tamil and Sinhalese...

  “Listen, Peter. When Aslan said you could never go back to Narnia, he meant the Narnia you were thinking of. But that was not the real Narnia. That had a beginning and an end. It was only a shadow or a copy of the real Narnia, which has always been here and always will be here: just as our own world. The Last Battle . Copyright © 1956 by C. S. Lewis Pte., Ltd. Copyright renewed © 1984 by C. S. Lewis Pte.  Escaping through the wardrobe to a magical land, Narnia, symbolized hope to Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy, when the harsh realities of the world became too much for their young souls. Children’s imaginations are powerful, from playing in parents’ clothing, dressing dolls, or building with Lincoln Logs.   Who made forts in the woods or backyards? Who imagined a fallen tree as a pirate ship or trains made with dining room chairs and blankets? We created our own perfect little worlds where we were in charge, with no need for technology to direct the ideas. As Lewis write...

  Gandi’s glasses recently sold for $340,000 USD at a British auction; more than ten times the pre-auction estimate. The singer Edith Piaf sang about living life looking through rose-colored glasses, " La vie en rose ”,   and John Lennon made round-colored lenses his trademark while proposing a perfect world in his song “ Imagine ”. We “see” the world out of the lens of our complicated lives and history. Some only see next season’s couture show or exotic vacation. Some see the world colored by past loss or perceived wrongs; impacting every relationship and decision today. As a young man, Gandhi had many choices but he chose a simple path. While his countrymen were embracing Western clothing and values, he tossed those aside, wearing a plain cotton loincloth. eschewing all but the simplest of food. World leaders, philosophers and thinkers came to seek his wisdom;  his message of change through nonviolence still rings today. Just think how wonderful the world would be now i...

In 2004, Sri Lanka was at the beginning of the end of the long-running civil war between the government and the LTTE, known as the Tamil Tigers. The LTTE has the terrible distinction of creating suicide bombers, often using women as carriers, targeting political figures. Since busses were the primary transportation, they became frequent sites for their destruction,  as well as the crowded bazaars. They once attempted to bomb the government complex, which was very close to my school, and the blast rattled the windows in the staff lounge. But the one of the most brutal of their activities was the capture of children to serve as soldiers. No child was safe outside in the North  and armed soldiers would even break into homes demanding one to conscript. No one argued with the brutality of the guns in their faces. One day at school, word filtered down that the UN had captured dozens of child soldiers from the jungles in the north and that several dozen boys and g...

It was late in the Sri Lankan day, hot and muggy, as Jill and I drove up to to the ramshackle gate that was wrapped around with a big chain and bigger lock. We were on a mission, so without words, we left the car with our bags and scaled the fence. As soon as our feet hit the hard packed dirt, dogs came rushing at us from every corner of the property. As we opened the door to the house, the dogs followed at our heels and incredibly there were more dogs in the house. Some cowering behind doors, others stranded on tables covered with feces and urine because they were too afraid   to get down for fear of the bigger dogs. In the midst of this chaos, cats watched from   on high. We quickly unloaded the food we brought and bowls were filled. Then the clean up started. Jill and I met through her daughter, Geraldine, affectionately   known as Gel, who was my student. We quickly bonded through our love of animals and lost people. The poor soul who brought us to t...

Years ago, my first volunteer job was at a telephone crisis center in Jackson, Mississippi. During Christmas, the director hosted a party for the volunteers and quietly mingled, asking each of us if we believed in Santa Claus. Later that evening, he addressed the group and reflected on his question. He explained that those who believed in Santa were the ones who still had hope. I often think back on his words. Around the same time, I worked for the Mississippi branch of the American Medical Association (AMA). One year, a group of us decided to adopt a family from the Salvation Army Christmas Tree, and we brought gifts to a young single mother and her toddler. The next year, the office wanted to do something bigger. I volunteered to visit the family the Salvation Army matched us with. After meeting a couple of families who didn’t move us, we requested another. We never called ahead—most people didn’t have phones anyway—because we wanted to see the “real family.” What happened next ch...