B.A.B.E. Week 20: Agony and gratitude

Elle in one of Wilson's baby onesies

This past week with Elle has been such a delight.   She is becoming even more dexterous with her fingers – taking her pacifier out and once or twice getting it back in by herself.   And strong – tugging my earrings away for my earlobes or pulling out my already thinning hair.  She is also just as talkative and smiley to strangers.   We have now started to take it for granted how she holds her head up so well.   And she is also enjoying sitting up in the corner of the couch or strapped into her high chair.   We haven’t started any solid foods yet but she seems interested by what is going into our mouths.  But, these happy joyful moments sometimes become clouded by how intense suffering in the world is.

 There has been so much intense suffering just since Elle’s birth – the South Carolina shootings, the continued destruction by ISIS, the Middle Eastern and African immigrant crisis in Europe, to name a few.   These agonies are compounded by the simple indignities and hardships endured by billions of the world’s inhabitants.

 For example, my parents are currently finishing up a humanitarian and religious 20 month mission to The Gabon.  And in their latest email, they shared an anecdote that for me typifies the lot of so many in the world without adequate access to nutrition, healthcare, transportation, technology, etc:

 . . .we left the house this morning to find a man with a heavy load on his shoulders, climbing out of the deep gutters in front our house.  He struggled a minute and it became apparent he was blind, appeared to be cataracts.  We guided him down, he kept heading toward the ditch.  He said he had a load of manioc to send to "mama" in the village.  We finally reached the small store at the intersection down the street and the man there helped him find his way across the street and up to the taxis.  What a brave man, to come down a street he obviously didn't know when he couldn't see, in order to serve his family.

This anecdote touched me because I think about the 1.2 billion people who live in extreme poverty (survive on less than $1.25 per day).   These extreme poor and the many more who struggle with health and food and security problems all over the world make me think about how lucky Elle is, how lucky I am, and probably how lucky you (reader of this blog entry) are.   We have so many opportunities and protections.    I also feel despair at our collective inability to solve all these problems.  I know so many people make progress, like my parents in Gabon and many of my friends.  But it is still hard to stomach the daily deprivation and agonies.

That said, I always have to come back to hope and optimism.  One of those sources of optimism are the world’s sustainable development goals -- they consist of 17 broad goals and 169 specific targets.   One of these targets is to eradicate extreme poverty within 15 years.   And the rest of the goals and targets also aim to make the world a much better place by 2030.   These sustainable development goals or SDGs will be adopted by world leaders at the end of this month and then it is a pretty short time to achieving them.  Here’s to hoping that they (and we) succeed!