Between a Rock and a Hard Place.

So my brother -in-law, Mark, wrote this beautiful post on his blog about the film 127 hours, which is based on the book Between a Rock and a Hard by Aron Ralston.  After reading it I felt as though my rewriting of it simply wouldn't do it justice - so thank goodness Mark was kind enough to let me copy his entire post into this one!

So here we have it folks...
Between a Rock and a Hard Place 
by Mark Drennan

In the opening shots of his film 127 Hours, the story of an American climber who got trapped by a boulder in a Utah canyon, Danny Boyle splits the screen into three and shows us image after image of people. Crowds of them. People at a football match. People getting off an underground train. We see the busy-ness of modern life, the anonymity, the claustrophobia, the relentlessness. Boyle knows exactly how this will make me feel. I sought release. I was immediately connecting with one of the very things which gave Aron Ralston such a passion for the outdoors. Escape.

Aron Ralston loved to be out on his own, to be free from the confines of urban life, to face the wild with only himself to rely on. But of course what made Ralson’s story as tragic as it became was that when he got in to trouble no-one knew where he was. He had chosen to be alone. And alone was what he got.

As the film is coming to an end Danny Boyle reintroduces his crowd shots. We see the same people. Crowds of them. People at a football match. People getting off an underground train. But of course my emotional response to these identical images is now completely different. It is to openly embrace the safety that suddenly numbers represent. It is the embrace of community.

This story is an incredible metaphor for the dangers of individualism, of shirking community, of going it alone. I was really interested to discover that the book “Into The Wild” had been one of the things which inspired Ralston to embark on his life of the outdoors in the first place. And the journey of Chris McCandless seems to have taken him to a similar destination. In the film version of McCandless’ story the following words are put in to his mouth as a way of showing just one of the reasons why he might have embraced the life of a tramp and headed off to experience the wilds of Alaska alone:

I’ll be all the way out there. On my own. No f**king watch. No map. No axel. No nothing.  Just be out there in it, you know. Mountains, rivers, sky, game. Just be out there in it, you  know. In the wild ... Getting out of this sick society! Society you know, society! Cause,  you  know what I don't understand? I don't understand why people, why every f**king  person is so bad to each other, so f**king often.  It doesn't make sense to me. Judgement.  Control. All that, the whole spectrum.

And yet whenever McCandless’s body was found in that now famous old wreck of a bus the following epiphany seemed to have occurred to him: Happiness is only real when shared.

Sure, we’re all broken, messed up and pretty crappy people. But we are also wonderful and beautiful creations capable of love. We’re made for one another. We were made for community. The first thing Aron Ralston told James Franco when they met to help Franco prepare for his role in 127 Hours, was that it was thoughts of his family, those he loved, which give him the strength to keep going when all felt lost.

While talking to Leech recently about life in the country, he insightfully suggested that because there is so much space to share around in a rural setting people are less concerned about letting others in a bit more. Where I grew up people didn’t really knock on each others doors so much as let themselves in. There was an openness which I remember being surprised by initially, having lived my earliest years in a town. In those more urban settings it is as if, given how little space there is, those who get their hands on some are unwilling to give much if any of it up to others. Perhaps they fear that to do so would leave nothing left for them. We jealously guard our spaces with gates and walls and hedges, a car for every member of the family and ipods for whenever we’re in the open.

I can’t think of the word ‘community’ anymore without thinking of Sierra Leone. It is a place where personal space barely exists in the way we would understand it. I remember chatting with my friend Kadie one day before she screwed her face up for a second and then plunged her finger in to my ear. She had spotted something which she felt needed removing. I remember one of our staff saying that she would ‘of course’ organise for someone to sleep in the room next to mine so that I would not need to be in my house alone. Her face was so confused when I told her that I thought I would be okay, wrestling with the dilemma of whether I was just being polite or if I could possibly actually be happy being alone.  Afterwards the kids would regularly ask me if I was the only one who slept in the house. “Are you not afraid?” they would ask. I remember another time when two of our boys were to spend the night in a room on their own. When I checked on them later in the evening, and even though they had had their pick of eight beds, they had snuggled together on to one.

People need people. The less money people have the clearer their understanding of this seems to be. Money, and the things which come with it, seem to distract people and fool them in to thinking that with ‘stuff’ they can begin to do without one another. The problem is, whenever we retreat and put up these barriers, as western culture most certainly has done, it is very difficult to claw ourselves out of the canyon we have placed ourselves in.

And so we’re all stuck. We need to be in but not of a western culture which more and more offers a life diminishing. We need to be counter cultural without being anti social. We need to strike out in to the wild. But we need fellow travellers.

Aron Ralson only allowed himself one shout for help a day. He didn’t like the sound of his voice, feeling like it smacked of panic. When I am home and I look around me I wonder how trapped we really are, how heavy is the boulder, how much water do we have left and what would it sound like if we cried out.

Tronie Foundation.

The reality is that human trafficking DOES happen here - not just in our country, but in our very OWN state!  To find out more about an organization that is making a difference in our state, country and the world check out the The Tronie Foundation.  The foundation mentors survivors of slavery, both to become leaders and to work together with global leaders in the movement to end human trafficking.

I found some information about the founders of the foundation on the website and figured I would share it here!

Trong and Rani Hong, themselves survivors of childhood atrocities, established the foundation out of compassion for exploited women and children, and the desire to encourage human trafficking survivors to harbor anticipation of hope and freedom. Through the love, guidance and mentorship of others, the Tronie Foundation's founders have been able to pursue the American Dream of freedom and independence. Yet, they've chosen to personally cultivate their tragic beginnings into compassion for others for the past decade. 

The Hongs are passionate advocates for exploited women and for children at risk. Through the Tronie Foundation, they have joined with volunteers to educate thousands of people in our communities about the horrors of human trafficking. Research has proven that Washington State is an international entry point for human traffickers. Studies have documented human trafficking victims in at least 18 counties in Washington State. Investigations such as these have compelled the Hongs to help craft precedent-setting legislation in Washington State to help criminalize human trafficking, to strengthen penalties against the traffickers, and to provide protections, such as restorative services and confidentiality, to survivors. The Hongs' efforts have helped make Washington State a national model in the abolition of human trafficking in the United States. “I have always said if we survivors come forth and tell our story, reveal the truth of what happened to us, it will help people understand the realities of human trafficking,” said Rani Hong. “We can’t stay silent. If we do, we stay in the dark and allow the traffickers to continue the destruction of innocent lives.”

From the Tronie Foundation is borne the "Homes of Freedom," an initiative that is working to open the Northwest's first recovery shelter for modern day slaves. Board members share the goal of rebuilding survivors' lives by offering them services such as a safe, long-term home, counseling, and job training. The ultimate goal is to survivors achieve independence. The Hongs join other supporters of the "Homes of Freedom" in envisioning this shelter as a template that will expand across the United States, offering freedom to human trafficking survivors who are suffering from exploitation.

This is a video about the founder, a former child slave, Rani Hong as seen on Oprah.  

Modern Day Slavery.

So I know many of us may think that the days of slavery have come and gone, but the reality is that the issue of slavery persists.  Slavery is not a thing of the past, as this consensus may suggest, but a real issue that is alive and flourishing.

Check out the Slavery Map.  It lists some human trafficking incidents right in your backyard.  Amazing isn't it?  This is a place to see the cases of human trafficking that have been currently reported locally, nationally and internationally...so check it out!  It's an amazing resource!

Also here is some information I found on the website and about trafficking in Washington and Seattle.

Welcome to the movement to end slavery.

Slavery thrives in the shadows. An estimated 27 million live in bondage today – yet we know about the plight of so few of them. The battle to end slavery begins by revealing it.

Washington State

Washington State is a hot bed for sex trafficking because of the major ports and the I-5 channel. Sophisticated criminal networks are smuggling thousands of people from around the world into Washington—from Canada, through Sea-Tac Airport, through the Port of Seattle, and along the I-5 corridor.

Seattle

The FBI coordinated a cross-country sting in February 2009, with local and federal law enforcement. Seattle was listed as the number one spot for underage prostitution out of the 29 cities that participated.

Encouragement.

As many of you know I love to write...but nothing is more encouraging to me and my writing than when people tell me they ACTUALLY read what I write!  And nothing makes a writers day more beautiful than when she receives encouraging posts and comments - well besides flowers, good wine, chocolate, and kisses from the husband of course.


So here is one of my latest.  She was responding to the Sweaty Palms post- encourager you know who you are!


"I read these verses and instantly this post came to my mind. Proverbs 31v 8-9. He chooses us, those who can speak up and make a change for those who have no voice. The sweaty hands are from Him and for His reasons. Stand up. Speak up. Alot of change could be made in our world if we all spoke up when he challenges us to, yet often we sit back and let others do it.


And the verse that she speaks of goes a little something like this...


Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves,
     for the rights of all who are destitute.
Speak up and judge fairly;
     defend the rights of the poor and needy.
      Proverbs 31 v. 8-9 - New International Version


and these same verses in The Message go a little something like this...


Speak up for the people who have no voice,
     for the rights of all the down-and-outers.
Speak out for justice!
     Stand up for the poor and destitute!


I kind of like the way it is written in The Message, especially the bit about speaking OUT for Justice!


Anyhow there you have it..just a little bit for the day!  And remember encouragement goes A LONG WAYS!  I have been married for nearly 1.5 years now and this is something I am reminded of DAILY - encouragement goes a long ways.  Who can you encourage today??

   

An Inclusive World.

I think it’s important for us to live in an inclusive world. Excluding people for this reason or that is, in most cases, grossly unfair. I also think that the myth of the self-made man is exactly that, a myth. All of us are born under many conditions over which we had no control or no vote, i.e. where and when we were born, whether we were male or female, the color of our skin, our ethnicity, and our religion.
                -Thomas J. White


So Tom, the man who wrote this quote has "enabled Partners In Health to do “whatever it takes” to improve the lives and health of patients in destitute communities around the world; whether financing the construction of a small clinic in Cange, to purchasing a microscope, or paying $30,000 per patient for PIH’s first multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) program."


But don't you love what he writes...living in an inclusive world - what does that actually look like??   And I agree it isn't fair to exclude people from certain health care privileges or certain services simply because of WHERE they were born.  So why is it that so many are excluded??  I am granted so many privileges simply by being born in the United States - clean water, running water, good sanitation, hospitals staffed with educated doctors and nurses, all sorts of medicines and facilities at my disposal.  But think about what your life would look like if you were born elsewhere - doctors and hospitals may be a rare commodity, healthcare itself may be a rare commodity, clean water is definitely a rare commodity, access to medicine rare commodity...and the list goes on.  And Partners in Health doesn't let these differences stand in their way because they fully believe everyone should have equal access to health care options regardless of WHERE they were born.  And I love that idea...call me a socialist - I don't care because it is something I will always stand by!


Anyhow if you care to read the rest of the article about Tom White click HERE or go to the Partners in Health website or click HERE to go to my previous blog entry about Partners in Health and Mountains Beyond Mountains.

Psalm 139.

So I have spent the past few days thumbing through old blog posts from my old blog that I thought may be worthy of posting to this one, and I ran across this one from when I studied abroad in Mexico my final quarter at the University of Washington.  So here goes...

So as I was thumbing through my bible I was reminded of a Psalm Bekah printed out for me before i left for Mexico and I wanted to put it on here.  Seems fitting for the feelings of my heart right now.  Even though I do feel alone at times, even though I do miss my family and friends, and even though I do miss being completely known by people - my challenge this year is to break the cycle of relying on myself and rely on the Lord and not be slow to ask for help and rely on other people and to recognize that I am NOT alone.  The Lord sees me and the Lord knows me and I do not have to be strong for Him because He is strong for me.  He keeps me company and I am never alone.

So here it is….Psalm 139 (thank you bekah for this..)

O Lord, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O Lord. You hem me in – behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,” even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you. For you created my inmost being; you knit me in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My famre was not idden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woeven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed boyd. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand. When I awake, I am still with you….Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

Bit of Inspiration.

"We get one story, you and I, and one story alone. God has established the elements, the setting and the climax, and the resolution. It would be a crime not to venture out, wouldn't it? It might be time for you to go. It might be time to change, to shine out. I want to repeat one word one for: LEAVE. Roll the word around on your tongue for a bit. It is a beautiful word, isn't it? So strong and forceful, the way you have always wanted to be. And you will not be alone. You have never been alone. Don't worry. Everything will still be here when you get back. It is you who will have changed!"

- Donald Miller - from the Foreword of his book Painted Desert

Don't you just love this??  I am on a roll today with the quotes...but I just wanted to share some of the ones that truly inspire me!  After reading this one, I think - I know why i travel, I know why I love adventures, but I also know why I do love the comfort of home.  It is nice to have a place to come back to - a place to ground yourself - where people know the person you were before you left.  But then i ask, what is home exactly??  Is it simply a place?  Or is it the people?  Or is it your belongings and material things that create a sense of home?  So many different meanings for one very short four-letter word.  I truly am a woman of many unaswered questions, and these circular questions as my brother would call them will continue throughout this entire blog, and let's be honest - throughout my entire LIFE!

Quote.

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."

- Mark Twain

Why is it that soo many people speak of exploring...of dreaming...of discovering but they dont actually do it??...is it fear?...is it obligations and responsibilities that hold them back?  What is it that holds you back?  

Our Deepest Fear.

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

- Marianne Williamson

Dont you just love that?  How does it make you feel?  And where will you go with this knowledge?

Silent Racism.

This is a video made by a small group for a depth studies class at Quest Church, which is a wonderful church!  I ran across this video ages ago on the Quest website, and just recently searched for it again.  Watch it.  The group mentions that "We need to continually break the silence about racism whenever we can.  We need to talk about it at home, at school, in our houses of worship, in our workplaces, in our community groups."

What are your thoughts on silent racism and stereotypes?  Perhaps you aren't blatantly racist with your words, but what about your thoughts and your actions?  How did the video make you feel?  So many good things to think about...and talk about.  I hope you show this to family and friends, and I REALLY hope this video gets you talking about the things so many people just don't want to talk about!

White Privilege.

From the title of this post you may be able to figure out for yourselves just what might await you further down the page.  I know many of you may be even be turned off and hesitant to read any further simply because of this said title- but I beg you, for your sake and for mine...please take the time to read on!

So this is a hard topic for me.  And it hurts to even acknowledge this said privilege.  And trust me I turned my eyes away from it for FAR too many years.  I mean who wants to admit they are privileged simply because of the color of their skin??  I know I don't!  And this is coming from the girl that for years was against affirmative action because she deemed it to be unfair and unjust simply because it gave people a hand up that may otherwise not have received it.  And now so many years later, I write as the girl who recognizes how flawed our system is...and how flawed we, as individuals, are and in order to even the playing field we may need to consider things like affirmative action.

Anyhow enough shouting from my soap box!  So I read this article titled White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack by Peggy McIntosh during my final quarter at the University of Washington, when I was studying racism and identity in Mexico.  

What follows is simply a brief excerpt from the article about the daily effects of white privilege...Read it.

Peggy McIntosh writes, "I think whites are carefully taught not to recognize white privilege, as males are taught not to recognize male privilege. So I have begun in an untutored way to ask what it is like to have white privilege. I have come to see white privilege as an invisible package of unearned assets which I can count on cashing in each day, but about which I was ‘meant’ to remain oblivious. White privilege is like an invisible weightless knapsack of special provisions, maps, passports, codebooks, visas, clothes, tools and blank checks."

She continues..."I decided to try to work on myself at least by identifying some of the daily effects of white privilege in my life. I have chosen those conditions that I think in my case attach somewhat more to skin-color privilege than to class, religion, ethnic status, or geographic location, though of course all these other factors are intricately intertwined. As far as I can tell, my African American coworkers, friends, and acquaintances with whom I come into daily or frequent contact in this particular time, place and time of work cannot count on most of these conditions."

Daily effects of white privilege:

1. I can if I wish arrange to be in the company of people of my race most of the time.

2. I can avoid spending time with people whom I was trained to mistrust and who have learned to mistrust my kind or me.

3. If I should need to move, I can be pretty sure of renting or purchasing housing in an area which I can afford and in which I would want to live.

4. I can be pretty sure that my neighbors in such a location will be neutral or pleasant to me.

5. I can go shopping alone most of the time, pretty well assured that I will not be followed or harassed.

6. I can turn on the television or open to the front page of the paper and see people of my race widely represented.

7. When I am told about our national heritage or about "civilization," I am shown that people of my color made it what it is.

8. I can be sure that my children will be given curricular materials that testify to the existence of their race.

9. If I want to, I can be pretty sure of finding a publisher for this piece on white privilege.

10. I can be pretty sure of having my voice heard in a group in which I am the only member of my race.

11. I can be casual about whether or not to listen to another person's voice in a group in which s/he is the only member of his/her race.

12. I can go into a music shop and count on finding the music of my race represented, into a supermarket and find the staple foods which fit with my cultural traditions, into a hairdresser's shop and find someone who can cut my hair.

13. Whether I use checks, credit cards or cash, I can count on my skin color not to work against the appearance of financial reliability.

14. I can arrange to protect my children most of the time from people who might not like them.

15. I do not have to educate my children to be aware of systemic racism for their own daily physical protection.

16. I can be pretty sure that my children's teachers and employers will tolerate them if they fit school and workplace norms; my chief worries about them do not concern others' attitudes toward their race.

17. I can talk with my mouth full and not have people put this down to my color.

18. I can swear, or dress in second hand clothes, or not answer letters, without having people attribute these choices to the bad morals, the poverty or the illiteracy of my race.

19. I can speak in public to a powerful male group without putting my race on trial.

20. I can do well in a challenging situation without being called a credit to my race.

21. I am never asked to speak for all the people of my racial group.

22. I can remain oblivious of the language and customs of persons of color who constitute the world's majority without feeling in my culture any penalty for such oblivion.

23. I can criticize our government and talk about how much I fear its policies and behavior without being seen as a cultural outsider.

24. I can be pretty sure that if I ask to talk to the "person in charge", I will be facing a person of my race.

25. If a traffic cop pulls me over or if the IRS audits my tax return, I can be sure I haven't been singled out because of my race.

26. I can easily buy posters, post-cards, picture books, greeting cards, dolls, toys and children's magazines featuring people of my race.

27. I can go home from most meetings of organizations I belong to feeling somewhat tied in, rather than isolated, out-of-place, outnumbered, unheard, held at a distance or feared.

28. I can be pretty sure that an argument with a colleague of another race is more likely to jeopardize her/his chances for advancement than to jeopardize mine.

29. I can be pretty sure that if I argue for the promotion of a person of another race, or a program centering on race, this is not likely to cost me heavily within my present setting, even if my colleagues disagree with me.

30. If I declare there is a racial issue at hand, or there isn't a racial issue at hand, my race will lend me more credibility for either position than a person of color will have.

31. I can choose to ignore developments in minority writing and minority activist programs, or disparage them, or learn from them, but in any case, I can find ways to be more or less protected from negative consequences of any of these choices.

32. My culture gives me little fear about ignoring the perspectives and powers of people of other races.

33. I am not made acutely aware that my shape, bearing or body odor will be taken as a reflection on my race.

34. I can worry about racism without being seen as self-interested or self-seeking.

35. I can take a job with an affirmative action employer without having my co-workers on the job suspect that I got it because of my race.

36. If my day, week or year is going badly, I need not ask of each negative episode or situation whether it had racial overtones.

37. I can be pretty sure of finding people who would be willing to talk with me and advise me about my next steps, professionally.

38. I can think over many options, social, political, imaginative or professional, without asking whether a person of my race would be accepted or allowed to do what I want to do.

39. I can be late to a meeting without having the lateness reflect on my race.

40. I can choose public accommodation without fearing that people of my race cannot get in or will be mistreated in the places I have chosen.

41. I can be sure that if I need legal or medical help, my race will not work against me.

42. I can arrange my activities so that I will never have to experience feelings of rejection owing to my race.

43. If I have low credibility as a leader I can be sure that my race is not the problem.

44. I can easily find academic courses and institutions which give attention only to people of my race.

45. I can expect figurative language and imagery in all of the arts to testify to experiences of my race.

46. I can chose blemish cover or bandages in "flesh" color and have them more or less match my skin.

47. I can travel alone or with my spouse without expecting embarrassment or hostility in those who deal with us.

48. I have no difficulty finding neighborhoods where people approve of our household.

49. My children are given texts and classes which implicitly support our kind of family unit and do not turn them against my choice of domestic partnership.

50. I will feel welcomed and "normal" in the usual walks of public life, institutional and social.