A Family Experiment

July 7, 2013

7 Pentecost, Proper 9 (Year C)

Galatians 6:1-16

I wasn’t wildly impressed with most of our Galatians reading, but one line really caught me.  “Bear one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.”  Maybe because it seems to be a theme that has been swirling around for me lately, poking and challenging me.

I’m reading a book right now called Abide with Me that has a main character who seems to be trying to consciously live out Paul’s instruction.  Tyler Caskey is a minister in a small town who is attempting to live a faithful life and be aware of God around him in circumstances that are not always the most conducive.  He was raised with a guiding principle that he should “always think of the other person first.”  And he tries so hard to do it, imagining how his parishioners might hear certain things, being careful not to assume he knows what anyone else is really going through, thinking about how to help people through hardships.  He insists on keeping the church doors unlocked at all times, leaving a blanket in the last pew, just in case.  He seems to be a very “love your neighbors as yourself” kind of person.   Or, as Paul phrases it, a “bear one another’s burdens” kind of person.  

           Seemingly unrelatedly, while driving one day I heard the Kojo Nmamdi show doing a segment on food waste.  Apparently 32 percent of all food produced for human consumption in the world is lost or wasted.  The average family throws out $1600 in food each year.  Meanwhile, of course, more than a billion people in the world go hungry, so cutting even a fraction of the waste could go a long way.   One of the speakers on the show was suggesting that we need to think of ourselves as a food ecosystem.  We individuals are part of a system that includes manufacturers, grocers, and restaurants, and all of us need to become more responsible players in the system.

            The ecosystem idea seems to be another way of talking about bearing one another’s burdens.  The more we understand ourselves as being part of a community (from the smallest community, like a family, to the largest, the world), the better we can see that we are all in this together.  The problems of the people in my family, the  homeless people along the Route 1 corridor, and people struggling in countries ravaged by war and civil unrest are my problems too.  And what I do or don’t do, whether it has to do with my treatment of the people around me or throwing extra food away, affects other people.  Whether I intend it to or not.

            But in order to start thinking about how to go about bearing one another’s burdens, maybe we first have to be like Tyler Caskey from my book and try to catch a glimpse of what those burdens are.

            There are a whole lot of people whose lives couldn’t be more different than mine.   With my nice house, my comfortable bed, easy transportation, surrounded by family and friends.  My worst nights’ sleep in recent years have been at the St. Aidan’s camp-out and volunteering at VICHOP.  No war on my doorstep, no run-ins with political authorities for me (other than a speeding ticket here and there).  My life is very safe and very comfortable.  It’s easy to forget that not everyone lives this way.  

            And so my very understanding family agreed to undergo an experiment with me last week.  We took the Live Below the Line Challenge, which challenges people like me to try to live for 5 days on $1.50 a day.  That number represents the amount the World Bank has defined as the U.S. equivalent to what 1.4 billion people living in extreme poverty around the world have to live on.  Now for those 1.4 billion people, that $1.50 has to cover everything – we’re talking health care, housing, transportation, education, energy and food.  For the Live Below the Line Challenge, it only has to cover food.  But believe me, even that part is incredibly hard, and changes the way you live and think and interact with the people around you.

            I read about the Challenge several weeks ago and brought it up with my family.  At that moment, we were at Austin Grill having dinner.  Holden and Sophie were intrigued, but the other two weren’t so sure.  My son Dylan got pretty dramatic.  “I’ll be starving!” he insisted.  “We won’t eat anything I like!”  My daughter Maya was most concerned about what it would mean for her snacks.  “Does that mean I can’t eat fruit snacks?” she asked.  Indeed it did, but I promised her we would find other snacks for her.  Dylan’s real concern surfaced a little later when he asked, “Does that mean I can’t play with Legos that week?” “No,” I assured him.  “It just means you can’t eat your Legos.”

            The next hurdle came when Holden and I looked at our calendars and tried to find five days in a row when this Challenge would fit into our schedule.  We couldn’t do it over Father’s Day (when we wanted to take Holden out for dinner), or when Holden’s mom was visiting for a Nationals game.  We couldn’t do it over Dylan’s birthday, or when we were hosting the soccer party, or when I was going to a celebratory end-of-the-year dinner with the PTA Board.  And then when we had planned to start it we realized we had too much perishable food to eat before we could begin. 

Finally last week we found a space that would work.  So between last Sunday and this past Thursday we attempted to eat on only $1.50 per day per person, which comes out to $37.50 for the family.  About a fifth of our usual food expenses for that time period.

            We had a hiccup the very first morning when I discovered a mango we’d missed in our produce gorging.  We were faced with a dilemma – to waste the mango or have to spend a whole $1 of our budget on it.  I couldn’t bear to waste it (that radio show really did make me think!).  So beginning with that $1, we began carefully assessing and keeping track of everything we ate.  Generic cereal with carefully doled out milk and a bit of fruit for breakfast.  Coffee without flavored creamer for me.  A little cheese on corn tortillas or scanty PB&J for lunch with some carrots.  Saltines for snacks.  Dinners were beans and rice, ramen noodles, plain spaghetti, fried rice.  No meat, very few fresh fruits.  Thankfully we were saved by our garden, where for pennies in seeds we (with Don’s help) harvested armfuls of lettuce and cucumbers.

            It was incredibly eye-opening.  I think all of us felt hungry most the time.  When I went to the grocery store for my few staples, I looked longingly at the strawberries and watermelon and even at the frozen pizzas.  And I felt guilty buying toilet paper and not including it in my budget.  Holden had to bring lunch to work every day, something he never does.  I doubt the kids got the nutrients or calcium they need for those days.  We were all a little fussy and on edge much of the time.  And it was socially awkward as well.  I felt funny telling poor Claire, our babysitter that the kids could only drink water and eat the food I parceled out for them.  We sort of avoided eating with other people during that time.  At the end, we didn’t quite make it, coming in $2.35 over our 5 day budget.

            I think this experiment will make us think and live differently, for a while anyway.  I’m so thankful for the delicious fresh food I’ve been eating since our 5 days ended.  I’m much more cognizant of how much I have; how much more I have than what I need.  And I think I have just a tiny little window into how hard it must be to really live on so little, especially when it is on top of other hardships, like an unsafe living environment, no healthcare, or lack of a support network.  How much it would affect things I take so for granted like basic happiness and my social relationships. 

            It’s just one little piece of the puzzle, but it’s an important puzzle that we all work on over our lifetimes.  Figuring out how to get better at helping to bear one another’s burdens, loving our neighbors as ourselves, thinking of the other person first.  Striving always to be responsible and loving members of this mysterious ecosystem that is the Kingdom of God.  Amen.