The other day I was in a meeting about sexual trafficking. I was
inspired by the commitment and passion that people had about
eliminating this form of slavery. I was particularly inspired by two
women who have made this their life's passion. The meeting broke for
lunch, and we all went to the hotel restaurant. I was talking with one
woman about her many trips overseas, and how most people in our part
of the world cannot even comprehend how most of the world lives; and
the degrees of poverty and suffering. She kept repeating how this was
her passion. Then it came time to order, and she spent (literally) 15
minutes asking the waiter questions about various menu items and
complaining that nothing really suited her. The other woman, who
moments earlier has been speaking passionately about ending sexual
trafficking, flipped out when her salad came because the dressing was
already on it. She was so upset, because that meant extra calorie
intake.
To me, it all seemed out of place, and lacking in integrity. But then
I shouldn't judge - I seem to always flip flop between genuine caring
and compassion about others, and then pure self-centredness and
wanting to get my own way! Ah, to be human!
1 comment:
Is this first time you've noticed that big picture, save the world from itself, people can be complete messups on critical details?
The first two thirds of my adult life were spent in the academy which is full of all sorts of rude, inconsiderate people, many of whom thought they were doing the world a favour just by opening their mouths.
My late spouse came out of hard core, high pressure business; and it was a pleasure to go for dinner with his colleagues because they knew how to ask for things without demeaning people.
Their sole motivation in life was to be good at making money (for someone else) and they were honest about that...so we could have conversations about what really mattered in life. Some of them (my spouse among them) ended up doing wonderfully selfless things for the world because they weren't caught up in themselves.
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