Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Two pieces of mail.

After putting Micah down for the night I remembered that I hadn't gotten the mail today. So, I slipped on my flip-flops, grabbed my keys and jogged down 3 flights of stairs to our little mailbox. I inserted the key into the box, and reached in to collect my few pieces of USPS mail for the day.

As I walked back up the stairs, I began reading the first piece of mail - a letter from Compassion International. It was stating that there is a global food crisis going on right now, and that is affecting the families and children that Compassion supports. The price of simple staple foods has more than doubled in some areas and is even considered a life-threatening food crisis! Wow, this is serious stuff. I have noticed the price of food go up in my local grocery bill the last several months, but it has not affected me in a life threatening way at all.

After reading the letter from Compassion, I opened up my next piece of mail. It was an ad and coupon for Bed, Bath and Beyond. I glanced at the ad, seeing a number of kitchen gadgets and accessories that I do not need, and clipped the coupon for potential use down the road.

And then it struck me. Those two pieces of mail were completely opposite! On the one hand, Compassion reminded me that there is a real life threatening crisis for food; and on the other hand, Bed, Bath and Beyond reminded me that there is a whole lot of stuff out there that I just don't need in my kitchen to add to my current clutter of belongings.

I can't quite wrap my mind around the issue of such extreme imbalance in our world. So much need and so much abundance on the same globe.

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P.S. Here is the link for Compassion's Global Food Crisis Fund, in case you're interested in donating:
https://www.compassion.com/contribution/giving/global-food-crisis.htm

P.P.S. Sorry that this blog is WAY outdated...The Windy City Ruths have been traveling a lot this summer, and our web-site was under construction. So, needless to say, I dropped the ball on blogging. I plan on writing some "highlight" posts here soon to let you all know what went on in our summer!

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