President Carter

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Today we received more specific news about the cancer battle that President Jimmy Carter is facing.  The news was grim as he explained that his cancer had already found its way to his brain.

I have had some incredible experiences in my lifetime.  One of the greatest has been getting to know this man.

I have traveled with President Carter into some of the toughest places on the planet and watched him methodically extend love and care to those who had no one else showing up for them.  The sparkle in the eyes of those he would listen to and hug was like a song to heaven- there was such a special spirit there with him.

On one trip in particular, a dear friend invited me to travel in his plane to one of our destinations and the Carters were on the plane as well.  President and Mrs. Carter were sitting in seats that faced each other and I sat between them on the floor of the plane listening to them recount stories of their childhoods. They spoke of their fondness towards each other at a young age and the true, deep love they have for each other today was clearly evident.

President Carter has always followed his internal moral compass.  On that same flight, we also talked about the staggering evil and suffering in the world.  Given we come from the same faith, I asked the Carters very specific questions about how a good and loving God can allow so much suffering to unfold.  I loved that they both seemed to wrestle with the same kind of questions given all they have seen and experienced.  After the trip, I received a handwritten note from Mrs. Carter with some more thoughts on the subject- I dare say that was one of the few times I haven’t felt lonely in the struggle to understand the level of evil humanity is capable of, especially in light of my faith.

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Perhaps my favorite memory of President Carter is when we were in South Africa during a meeting together.  During a break before lunch he came up to me and said, “let’s have lunch together.” I will forever cherish that time and the many lessons I learned from our conversation.

I was raised very conservative, I was a member of the college Republicans and all I knew growing up about Carter was he was that “liberal” president. One of the greatest gifts of my life has been learning this is not who Carter is.

Politics is a farce…. it is too often a vehicle by which we put people in buckets and make conclusions about their hearts and their minds- especially about those we may disagree with politically. I reject that. Carter is the greatest reason we should all reject that.  His wise, empathetic and massive heart could never be constrained by the boundaries of politics- it extends far beyond and has found its way to the far corners of our planet and into the homes of those who suffer and need compassion the most.

Perhaps the most beautiful way to honor this man in this present time is by honoring what he stands for and contributing in our own ways to the greatness he pushes mankind toward.

Here are a few examples of the places he has put his heart the last 10 years- many places of enormous suffering, and all concerning issues that could use more advocates.  This list should inspire us to consider how we might better engage the community around us:

He teaches Sunday School– He’s engaged, he’s not just a member of a group but he actively engages, leads and shares of himself.

He is the founder of Habitat for Humanity– The United States has 48.5 Million people living in poverty. Since its inception Habitat has built over 1 million homes helping over 5 million people.  Get in touch with your local Habitat- they can always use an extra set of hands. If you are in San Antonio- lets go volunteer at Habitat together!

Guinea Worm Disease – Guinea Worm Disease (GWD) is a terrible affliction that has caused suffering and poverty in many countries.  In 1986, there were 3.5 million people with GWD across 21 countries in Africa and Asia.  Today, thanks to the Carter Center’s involvement, this disease is almost non-existent.  In 2014, there were only 126 total cases in just 4 countries. That’s a 99.99% reduction. Please consider supporting the Carter Center and its programs.

Waging Peace Across the Globe- Near and dear to my heart, President Carter is also waging peace across the globe.  He is stepping up in many countries with impossible odds that the world has seemed to forget- Sudan, Syria, South Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, and many more.  Awareness is a first step to improvement.  Consider learning a little more about what is happening in these places.

Finally, please keep President Carter and his family in your thoughts and prayers…. We need him here a lot longer; I am praying we get that.

“…I have had a wonderful life, I have had thousands of friends, I have had an exciting, adventurous and gratifying existence, so I was surprisingly at ease….  but now I feel you know it is in the hands of God and I will be prepared for anything that comes.” – President Jimmy Carter August 20, 2015

Hell on Earth

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The news reports are overwhelming, punishing.  In Syria the UN predicts there could be 4 Million refugees by the end of the year. Children in the Middle East are falling, innocent victims to war. Today a passenger jet was shot out of the sky and almost 300 people were killed in an instant, one reporter quoting a rebel fighter on the scene described “You look down and see ears, fingers, bones.”  One no longer has to look far: Lybia, Central Africa Republic, Eastern Congo, South Sudan, our own borders, one just has to look, look almost anywhere.

I’ve spent most of my career searching for solutions to these problems, trying to support the brave heroes who stand in the face of them everyday.  Any unbiased evaluation of my field would have to produce a scathing report of our failure.  Our failure to protect, our failure to reach our lofty objectives- at times our failure to even see them.  Today I feel that failure, with extra sting.  It is so overwhelming. Today it feels too big.  It makes me want to take my two little guys and find a safe place far away where we can live out our days in peace and I can shield them from man made horrors. Yet even then, we would go to sleep under the same sky and wake to the same sky, a shared sky.  There is no escaping our inextricable connectedness.  The South African ideal of Ubuntu- “the belief in a universal bond of sharing that connects all humanity” is our reality, it is inescapable.

So, no far away place for us- we have to stop feeling sorry for ourselves, get out of the quicksand that is despair, take a deep breath and get back in the game.  It is our responsibility to put as much goodness out there as possible, to combat the evil, and to look for things everyday around us that project goodness into humanity.  Buy someone coffee in the Starbucks line, volunteer somewhere, ANYWHERE.  No more excuses that we don’t know where to start looking.  Google the word volunteer and your hometown and it’s magic- there are easily 500 or more opportunities.  LEARN- just spend time diving in and learning about one thing that isn’t right in the world- poverty, Syria, human trafficking in your backyard, human trafficking overseas, the border crisis- anything.  Pick one cause and commit to read all sides of the issue and watch and learn. Wait to see if something doesn’t spring to mind in terms of a solution- just a base of knowledge fights the lies required for these types of things to fester.

So please tell me some good news- I am actually not kidding- please send me some good news- send me some joy, some love, some of the spirit that combats this horror.  I would be most grateful.

Joy is a discipline

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I went to a 5 year olds funeral expecting to hug and support an old friend; instead, I had my life transformed.

This is an entry from my journal, written November 29,2012

As most of you know, I’ve seen some awful things. I have witnessed humanity at some of its lowest points of vile behavior toward innocents. Over the last decade I have spent time in war zones, brothels with young children, jungles with mothers who can’t keep their children safe, and with kids, living in those jungles, forced to lug a gun around while serving an evil self-imposed king. As I’ve walked this path over the last decade the light, that is life, has grown dimmer for me. It started out bright, matching my energetic optimism in the goodness of humanity and a belief that good wins. Yet after seeing so much darkness- that light dimmed. It dimmed with each failed attempt to stop evil, with each time rebels abducted kids, with the times young girls just rescued, pulled free from a brothel, wanted to return to that horrid place- the only place they knew. Increasingly, I started to share with friends and fellow partners in this work that I was really struggling to find joy. I envied those that it still seemed to come so easily all the while convinced this life could not promise us joy. If it did why would it discriminate and give some great joy and others such great despair.

Today something happened. I parked my car at a church and walked in for a “funeral.” But there wasn’t a funeral, by any definition of mine. I saw stacks of new toys, so many you had to step around as you entered the church. The lobby was full of light- bright yellow balloons and children and adults wearing yellow shirts. There were goodies- goodies we all craved as kids (and truthfully still do as adults) popcorn, cookies, brownies, candy, and sodas. All of this to honor Jaxon, a 5 year old boy gone too soon. He wanted others, who suffer like him, to be given toys. In what should have been darkness, the horror and despair of this untimely and awful death- a death brought about by a cancer that ultimately stole this child’s ability to see, speak, or move- there was no such darkness. There was no such horror. There was no such despair. I was at a party not a funeral.

During the program I listened as people spoke about this gift to humanity. A rare courageous heart anchored by what our world would tell us is an impossible generosity. We heard stories of Jaxon giving all his toys away to the point his parents would hide some special ones back at times or he would give them all. Other stories of people showing up to pray for him but he would insist on praying for them. He wouldn’t pray for healing but for those who had come to see him. Stories of how he helped the older cancer patients stay light spirited during their treatments while at MD Anderson. One 11 year old still battling cancer spoke beautifully of how she could get through a treatment day if she knew Jaxon would be there.

I cried the entire time- sad tears and happy tears. I wept at how selfish I’ve been to say we aren’t entitled to joy and to let what I’m fighting in African jungles dictate that for me. I had a revelation, joy is a discipline. I must practice it and exude it even when situations I witness appear so grim. That 5 year old puts me to shame, he puts humanity to shame in the best and purest way. We owe so much more to each other. Our empathy needs to be like that of a child and extend in boundless ways across a boundless globe. Our joy needs to be that of a child that even in the midst of what is the bottom- true hell on earth, if cancer takes our freedom of movement, our sight and our ability to talk we can still hum in joyous protest. That’s how we win.

In the way Jaxon lived his short life and in the way he died, he won the war. We must never stop fighting: whether it be the terrible disease that is cancer or the fact we live in a nation of great wealth but have large populations of homeless children and adults. Be it the fact that there are more slaves in the world today then during the abolition era or that rebel warlords are raping, pillaging and killing the smallest of children. It’s ok to be sad about the baseline but in those tears we must also fight- fight to push the goodness and humility through. Fight to break the chains of lies that keep us from acknowledging how tragic we have let the world become and the lies saying we are powerless in this tragedy. But in our sadness we must have joy- that’s the power. We should shout in joy from the depths of the world’s despair and in doing so not let that despair break our spirits, our souls- that’s all we have to fight with.

Sweet Jaxon, if at times it becomes too hard to shout I will hum, at a minimum we must never stop humming. Thank you for teaching me that today.

Jaxon’s parents are doing some great things to carry on his legacy. You can learn more about them here: www.jaxonsfrogfoundation.com

 

Empathy Part One: Soft wired to care

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My hometown, San Antonio, has one professional sports team, the Spurs. I am biased, of course, but the Spurs are an excellent NBA franchise. Because we only have the one team our fans are especially devoted to their Spurs. At any point in the year you can see Spurs banners flying outside of homes and “Go Spurs Go” stickers proudly displayed on bumpers. You can imagine what happens when the Spurs enter the playoffs. When we make the finals, the city grinds to a halt. I have often joined in a crowded room with people watching the Spurs compete for a National title. The emotional response to a win is amazing, and if they lose you can guarantee people will be throwing remotes, crying, and storming out of rooms. It’s fascinating to me that my friends, and I will confess, me at times can have such a dramatic reaction to a game.

It turns out, these intense reactions we experience while watching a sporting event can actually be traced back to a set of brain cells called mirror neurons. Mirror neurons were discovered by accident in a lab in Parma Italy, as this PBS video describes(Nova.Org) The scientist, while experimenting with brain function in monkeys, discovered the brain has the same reaction to experiencing an event as it does watching someone else experiencing the same event. While monitoring the monkey scientist discovered a reaction when he grabbed a peanut. One day, a researcher walked into the lab, while still monitoring the monkey, and ate a peanut. The exact same neuron fired. This accident launched a course of research discovering mirror neurons. Jeremy Rifkin says, about mirror neurons, “we are soft wired to experience another’s plight as if we are experiencing it ourselves.”

This neurological reaction explains what we often call empathy. Empathy is the intellectual identification with or vicarious experiencing of the feelings, thoughts, or attitudes of another. What’s amazing is to realize our brains are actually soft wired to have the same reaction to joy and suffering in others as we have when we experience it ourselves. This goes way beyond our favorite sports teams and suggest if we will allow ourselves to know the stories of others we are soft wired to experience their joy and pain with them. Robert Krulwich reporting for NOVA says, “There is a place in my brain whose job is to live in other peoples brains.”

I have spent my career in some of the most remote places on earth hearing stories of brutal attacks by warlords who until recently have been allowed to go unchecked. When I hear the stories of pain and suffering it triggers something deep inside of me, it triggers my mirror neurons. What I am realizing is the difference between me and some others is not that I have a higher level of empathy but that I have had the privilege to hear the stories of those living in harms way. In fact, I have also had the opportunity to introduce others to moms who fear for their safety and children who have suffered at the hands of criminals. I have seen in them the same empathic response, the same mirror neurons firing.

There is something so amazingly powerful that happens when we turn our full attention to those who are suffering. We are soft wired to suffer alongside others, to experience their joy and their pain. As we consider the world we live in it would seem the greatest challenge is not to care more, but to know more. If we will turn our full attention to those who are suffering, be it in Central Africa or our own hometown, we are soft wired to respond with the deepest empathy.