My dear friends, family, compatriots, fellow Americans, and citizens of the world,
Today, I invite you to change your focus and to partake in a campaign that is guaranteed to incite change across the world. I promise and my track record has proven (http://faithorbust.blogspot.com), that my fellow workers and I will bring about a change that is essential and vital to our world today.
We will change lives.
We will be at the bedside of men and women who have never in their lives laid on a bed until their last weeks. Men and women who have never had the hands of another human touch their wounds, bathe their bodies, or do their laundry. Men and women who have never had the luxury of three meals a day, brought to or in some case fed to them. We will be touching the lives of the poorest of the poor, the forgotten, the anawim, those who are invisible. We will take young children into our arms, play with them, feed them, clothe them, sing to and dance with them. We will stand up with the Sisters of Mother Teresa and say to the world, that this person deserves love to be lavished upon them for the sole reason that they are a person.
We will change our homes.
When we come back we will be advocates for the poor, for the forgotten. We will raise our voices and say to the world, "these ones deserve love!" We will take into our hearts the lessons that we learn from India and put them into practice here at home. When I returned to the States from India, I helped in the Kitchen of a Bronx apartment complex for formerly homeless men who were getting a new start. I also assisted a few Americans, and a few French with their preparations for their own journey to Calcutta to serve.
We will change the world.
What can truly end violence in the world, more than mutual understanding and love? We may never agree on all the details, or on all the doctrines each of us believes or espouses, but we can all agree that love is our only hope. We all know the changing power of love; be it romantic, platonic, or familial. We know that love demands of us change. And we know that love demands of us service to those that we love. Love makes us better. Love makes us realise the miraculous uniqueness of the other.
We will change ourselves.
Everyone can tell you that I hate to wake up before noon, and I seldom go to sleep before 2am. But while I was serving in India, I dragged myself out of bed every morning at 430am to head to the Sisters' house so that I could prepare for a day of service. The knowledge that with out you, someone will not be loved is a powerful impetus to change. It's also a powerful tool for self assessment. YOU realise that for the first time in your life, YOU are TRULY NEEDED. And because of that overpowering need that makes all other needs seem like luxuries, you come to a wall. A wall that asks, how much can you sacrifice to love? How much sleep? How much time? How much health?
I am ashamed to say that countless times in India, I looked at the heights of the wall and turned away. I shied away and said, someone else can go out there and clean his wound, some one else can bathe him, someone else can sit with him and smile as words of another tongue wash over them. Someone else can, I'm going to go wash the dishes. We need to face the fact that "someone else" is really just a scape goat for our responsibility to love. This is a change we all need to make, to accept responsibility and "suck it up" and serve our neighbor, our enemy.
So how can you help change?
First, you can change the world. Take an extra moment out each and every day to reach out to that grouchy person in the next cubicle, or that lost person looking for some direction. Take a moment to appreciate the extraordinary value of each and every person.
Second, pray for us, bless us, think of us, or hope for us. We need all the good will, prayers and blessings we can gather. Especially for our health. During my last visit to India, I caught Tuberculosis (TB). And though I was healed of it through the greatness of public health care, it took six months.
Thirdly, it only requires the change in your pocket to send me to India for a day. The cost of two healthy meals a day is 250 ruppees, and housing is 100rps. Which, so long as the dollar doesn't descend any more, comes to 8$ (two years ago it was $7). Now, I am willing to eat the equivalent of one healty meal a day, which brings the cost to 125rps for food. And the overall cost to $5 and some change a day. Please donate some change!!
Fourthly, you can change your environment. I'm an artist, and at my recent gallery show, I discovered that others appreciate my photography. So I invite you to change your environment by purchasing a fine art photograph from India, Europe or the States. I will normally sell my photos for $25, but if you enter "CALCUTTA" in the coupon area, I will sell them at $15 + shipping. I have to sell them at least at $15 to break even (I tried to sell them at $5 during my show, but due to all the costs involved, I'm still $800 in the hole from my show, even though I received $215 in sales). You can visit http://www.sirhair.com/store to browse the catalogue of photos and paintings that I'm selling, you can also add a donation at the site, and pay by credit card.