On this day before the end of my experiment I am experiencing two feelings.
1) I feel excited about the things and experiences I can purchase after tomorrow—cheese, cocktails, new socks, a haircut, iTunes songs, Warriors tickets. It’s not that I didn’t eat well or that I didn’t experience pleasure while my experiment was in process. It’s just that on Thursday night I will have more options to choose from of things that are fun, tasty and pleasurable.
However, I must admit that I have been sitting in my easy chair tonight staring out the window with a heavy heart, a stray tear occasionally welling up in my eye.
2) I feel sad for the billions of people in the world who live on less than $1 a day and for whom this is not experiment. It’s brutal reality. Very few of the world’s poor are waking up tomorrow morning and saying, “Well, thank goodness those 40 days are over! Where shall I dine out with my friends tonight?”
I see my ending point. For people living in extreme poverty there is no end in sight. I can call it all off anytime I want. They can’t. This makes me profoundly sad.
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hey Mel--at the end of your experiment, it's time to make good on mine. For two weeks, I was supposed to eat from the food in my house and donate the typical cost of weekday food. As you know, nothing went as planned--I spent most of the time in and out of hospitals and doctor's offices and in the middle of it, my fridge broke and I had to throw out everything in it.
ReplyDeleteBut the experiment worked in entirely different ways. I am way more grateful than I could have imagined for paid sick time, health insurance, nearby health care and amazing friends taking care of me and checking on me everyday.
With that in mind, I decided to double what I was going to contribute and just gave $100 to kiva--supporting 3 different microloans for small businesses for women. and kiva has evidently just started partnering in Rwanda so that makes me even happier.
thank you!
Elizabeth
Your words are so true all the way around. I cry with you my friend.
ReplyDeleteThank you for doing this!
Tracy