Here is my warning that this post will sound incredibly naive and sophomoric. Stop reading if you can't handle my juvenile thoughts.
Having just returned from Europe, and only a few short days ago, having been in some of the very locations that were bombed in London this morning, I realize just how much my travels have changed me. At the exact time in the morning that the bomb blasts took place (~9am) on Friday, I was on the circle line, headed for Paddington station, to take the Heathrow Express.
So, unlike terrorists attacks in the past, even the attack in New York, I feel personally affected. It's not just because I've been there or due to my own mortality that deep emotions well up within me. It is because following my first trip out of the States, I have been transformed to see the rest of the world as real people. I know Germans, Londoners, Czechs, Poles, Romanians.
The world is broader to me, yet smaller all at the same time. I have seen the disgusting depths of human nature at Auschwitz-Birkneau, and I wonder if that's what it's like in the Darfur region of Sudan. I have seen the thriving and vibrant cities of London, Munich, Prague, Krakow, Vienna, and I know that they still have beggars and homeless persons. I just feel like I am still figuring out what God wants me to do with my Privelege. Does he want me to get rid of it? Does he want me to share it? To give it away? To keep it and use it? Is it really even my choice?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
<
2 comments:
I'm am glad to hear that you guys are safe. I thought about you both this morning when I heard that the attacks had happened. As to your questions, I don't know. I've struggled with the same things ever since I got back from SE Asia a few years ago. I wish there were some easy answer.
I hear you. I was glued to the TV set on Thursday too. I'm glad you're safe.
And how DO we handle our privilege? If I had the answer for you, it would be a travesty against the profoundity of the question itself.
Post a Comment