I am terrible at blogging and remembering to blog. I will throw that out there from the start, but I am going to attempt to try and see how things go.

For the topic of my first post, since all I did was not sleep and travel, a lot, here's a little musing I came to while in the midst of my travel.

We, in the United States, live in a culture of fear and distrust. I say fear because there are an abundant number of day to day references to uncertainties and expecting them to come to fruition. We as an American culture believe in insurance, protection from the unexpected, and we always expect the unexpected to happen. Its a big business, one that shows only signs of growth for the future. To drive a car, you must have insurance. To own or rent a home it is highly encouraged, even an ostracizable risk, not to have insurance.

We expect the worst, not the best. This is easily widespread through news and media outlets. The old sentiment "If it bleeds, it leads" still holds true for nearly all news and radio stations and we are as a culture constantly bombarded first with all of the terrible things happening in the world, and then if we stick it out through all of that we may finally get to see something positive.

This is why it is hard for people who rarely travel to see why someone from this fear culture would ever want to go somewhere else to help. "There is so much need here, bad things happen right here in America, why do you have to go to another country to help them?" I get asked this question more often than you would think, and I struggle to explain to people who have not stepped outside of their bubble to see and experience extreme poverty. Once you have seen extreme poverty situations and the people living in them, you will notice that there are few situations as desperate as those going on in developing nations. The breadth of poverty in these places, the sheer number of people affected, the lack of governmental aid and services available to help; add to the structural violence that makes people unable to break free of their cycle of poverty. It is in these situations, where we can provide the most for people in the form of hope. By sitting next to someone when they are concerned for a loved one in the hospital, offering a comforting smile to a passerby, being in the moment with people and sharing their fears, worries and concerns. We can make a difference.

We find hope through companionship, we were not meant to go through life alone. We hold the potential to be a great force of good in this world, both at home and abroad. So what can we do knowing this?

Another disclaimer, I am running on about 4-5 hours of sleep so if this has some rocky spots, bear with me!