The secret to how I keep so trim. True it takes a little discipline. In fact on most days I eat only breakfast and lunch, on two days I eat only breakfast. I noted that prisoners of war working many hours a day existed on only one meal a day. Conclusion? We don't need much food. Many thousands of people go to bed hungry night after night, a few nights of hunger hasn't hurt me. So my stomach shrinks a bit, that's O.K.
The secret is a black and white photo; a photo I treasure. A photo I found years ago; the most impacting photo I have ever seen. This photo like none other orients me to reality! For years I've had this photo on my refrigerator and in my bedroom. The more I study it the more impressed I get as to the margin between us haves and the have nots. Indeed I have actually visited places where people exist between a thin line of hope and fat vultures. Places where every day existence competes with death. It's true, there are those places.
I've traveled the world; I've seen and smelled poverty first hand; in Africa, India, Indonesia, Philippines and other countries in South America ... even here in Tijuana. Sights, sounds and smells I find hard to experience again.
This photo is, in part, why I changed my life-style. What others do with their lives is not my business, but pardon me; I'll continue speaking for the poor.
I'm not going to be wise and select only what I consider to be the righteous poor; a true widow and her seven kids, but like Jesus, I will demonstrate grace and compassion by giving to the foolish poor, the deserving poor living out their painful consequences of sin. (Jesus and the adulteress woman, Jn.8:5)
The little child in the photo in a short time went to his true father In heaven, he's joyfully there where there is no hunger ... the buzzard waited patiently, had his meal and flew away full.
I can't afford the luxury of forgetting that photo and the thousands of other hungry children ... born to die hungry.
Second helping? No thanks!
