In the past three weeks we all had our stories and experiences from being in a unique country with its unique people and cultures. After spending this much time with this particular group, reading about your personal experiences, talking about how it has had an effect on you I realize how much it really provided to our outlook. But I believe that even more then just this new place, I have been able to learn more about myself by spending this time with a group of such amazing individuals that are both interesting, caring, kind, knowledgeable and of course provocative.
For me this trip is not only about seeing and experiencing a new far out culture, but to question my own values and beliefs with others who are experiencing the same, allowing us to see the effect on our own selves.
These unique individuals, combined with the thoughtful programming, allowed me to be more vocal then I would at home, not allowing me to hide behind my native views and beliefs. Although we are all our own individuals, I may also be the one who usually ends up on the opposing side, one too many times.
Given another forum such as this blog to further to express my views, it would be great if I can also share something the trip has taught me. Hopefully this is also something that all of us can learn about ourselves and what it means to be who we are.The Tibetan community, with whom we are volunteering, is a unique example of a people who must question, who are we as a people? What do we have that makes us unique? Is this something that is valuable to us? Is it something worth suffering for? These are important questions that must be reflected on ourselves when seeing how they have suffered in their struggle to maintain there unique identity.
From our interactions with the Tibetan people we hear their stories of how it is to live as a refugee exiled from their homeland. Even worse are those in Tibet, living as the victims of continuous human rights violations. There is nevertheless an important distinction to be made between two separate issues they face that may otherwise be overlooked. On one hand there is the suffering, pain, imprisonment, but as terrible as these may be, this is not what they are fighting against, more so, this is the cost. The cost that they must be willing to take in order to maintain what is most valuable to them, so valuable that they choose not to subvert themselves. It may be very likely that if they would have given up there unique culture and become ordinary Chinese citizens, they would be treated no differently then an ordinary Chinese. Furthermore, one of they key issues in The Five Point Peace Plan for Tibet is to "abandon the Chinese population transfer policy which threatens the very existence of the Tibetans as a people" (Five Point Peace Plan for Tibet, H.H. The XIV Dalai Lama). The Tibetans see there identity as something so valuable that they are not willing to become ordinary even if it may mean suffering.
Being Jewish and proudly so, people may ask if being Jewish makes me better then other people. I believe that if being Jewish is something that I greatly value, and it is something I possess, then in virtue of having something unique of great value, then that should make me better then those who lack it.
Every individual has their own merits, which if having merits is of value, then anyone who possess merits is justified in believing him better then someone else who lacks it. This is no justification for treating another unfairly because everyone possesses their own unique list of merits. Instead of seeing everyone as the same, all being ordinary, let us rather embrace what makes us who we are. This includes our merits, our faults, our experiences, our challenges, our values and our history, including how we have grown in our own unique journey through life to get to where we are. It is something that should be valued and not be given up easily.
The only question remains then, why is being Jewish so important and therefore so valuable? What did our parents and grandparents over thousands of years believe so strongly in that they felt it necessary to maintain their Jewish identity through all the suffering and persecution? Hopefully the measure of how much we have been through shows how valuable this must have been to them.
We are different individuals and we may all have different reasons why our Jewish identity is important to us, but let us all agree that what we have is something of great value, not to be given up in the face of all those who wish us to be nothing more then ordinary. Everyone has things that makes them who they are, and if this is something that is valued, then let them say:
"Yes, I am better, I am ME"
-Meir Dick
No comments:
Post a Comment