Ubuntu and Back to the Good Life

Tanzania, China, Thailand, Brazil... these are some of the places that have areas that are visibly struggling economically or to fit into the Western ideal, or the classified Third World Countries. These countries also have beautiful idealic vacation spots that the Western world loves to see. However, while travelling to these vacation spots you can't avoid seeing some rough spots on the way.
Good actions most people have learned are to have compassion and to help in the moment. My problem is that we learn and witness these hardships, but on the way home these 'rough spots' stay in that country and are usually never brought back to our blissful lives.

I want to live their hardships. Understand it. Not loose my current life but to try to experience becoming removed from the life I am so used to. I believe it is healthy to be out of your elements at some points. Everyone knows the expression to "walk a mile in someone else's shoes", but remember that that 'someone' has to walk a lifetime in those shoes. 

UBUNTU

An anthropologist proposed a game to the kids in an African tribe. He put a basket full of fruit near a tree and told the kids that who ever got there first won the sweet fruits. When he told them to run they all took each others hands and ran together, then sat together enjoying their treats. When he asked them why they had run like that as one could have had all the fruits for himself they said: ''UBUNTU, how can one of us be happy if all the other ones are sad?''
'UBUNTU' in the Xhosa culture means: "I am because we are"

We need to understand Ubuntu. I find it so interesting seeing how society is viewed in different parts of the world, in different religions, and in different families.


In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints there is a beautiful proclamation to the world about the family unit (The Family: A Proclamation to the World). It mentions the tricks to a successful marriage and a happy family are "established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities". It also says "the disintegration of the family will bring upon individuals, communities, and nations the calamities foretold". I believe this to be true. If we have successful marriages, happy families and connected communities, we would be rid of most of the severe hardships in the world. 

Learn from what you see, don't forget what you see.