--posted by drcary on Mar 9, 2009
I had a dream. A genie appeared and offered me one wish. I begged: “I want happiness.” The genie answered: "Happiness? You can't give someone happiness. What is happiness for one person is different for someone else. It is relative. I cannot give you happiness, but I can give you what will make you happy. What will make you happy?” the genie asks.
I examined my life and found that the most ecstatic moments of joy, bliss and happiness were when I was helping people. My happiness came from serving others.
So, I said, “Genie, let my life be one of serving people." And so it has come to pass. I became a physician to provide medical care to indigenous peoples worldwide in war and in peace. I held the hands of hopeless people in warring Rwanda, dared to care for the desperate in Angola and the traumatized in the trenches of the Gujarat earthquake. I taught AIDS prevention to missionaries in the highlands of Papua New Guinea, set up a humanitarian project providing care for people infected with HIV in Bombay and secured financial support for an orphanage in Nepal along with construction of a school for the orphaned children to break the cycle of poverty.
One day while walking down a desolate dirt path in the diamond rich region of Angola, I stopped a ragged barefoot boy and asked an important question: “Little boy, can you tell me why God made rich people and poor people?” He answered my question without reflection or hesitation: “Sir, he made the rich people to take care of the poor people and he made the poor people to take care of the rich people.” MMMM
I have a dream. I have a dream that the people of plenty embrace their power and collectively work to empower the people of poverty. I have a dream that the people of poverty embrace their power and collectively work to empower the people of plenty. We are one people, one family. And when I eat I want to be reassured that everyone goes to the table and partakes in the same bountiful feast I so comfortably enjoy. Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks and Abraham Lincoln had a dream of the oneness of all people. They moved mountains by their determination and convictions.
And then there is you, equally powerful, equally determined and equally convicted. Who are you? What are you doing? Where are you going? And when will you get there? Living has taught me that the simplest of acts of love bring profound ripples of goodness throughout the planet. Sewing buttons on children’s shirts in barren fields restoring their dignity, showing Guatemalan villagers how to floss their teeth, passing out roses to strangers or saving someone life are random acts of kindness that remind us how sweet it is to care.
A man went to God and asked how he could create such terrible things in this world without creating a solution. And God said, “But I did create a solution: You! What can you do? What will you do? And when will you do it?”
[Dr. Cary is currently in Zambia, helping grandmothers care for their orphaned grandchildren. See his website for the latest.]