Monday 5 November 2012

Be Mindful & Learn To Care more.

Hello Readers. Last week I was able to meet up with an old friend who I hadn't seen in years! It was so much fun to see her, and give her a hug! Her parents are missionaries and she grew up in Papua New Guinea. She is Caucasian and have been living in the states for years, but like me she still feels like a foreigner. She looks like most Americans, but she's bilingual and bicultural. I do not look American at all, and while being raised in America I'm still bicultural.

While we caught up we also talked about things that bugged us about American life. The number one thing was how American social culture is set up to focus on the individual vs the community. The American dream of being self made is great and all, but being self made means keeping a the focus on the individual vs the community. Being yourself and taking care of yourself first is very important, but in virtually every country has their social focus on the community.

This doesn't mean you need to sacrifice yourself for the group. It means to try and put others first. To have the understanding that you're own little world doesn't revolve around you. Your own little world is your family and friends, meaning your community. It's also your job has a human being to extend that love to other communities of totally strangers.

Middle class in the states may not rule, but they come in unheard of numbers. The middle class basically does not exist in other countries. Yet it's my middle class friends who complain the most and so rudely about money. They bag and hate on my upper class friends all the time. Simply because they have a higher net worth than them. To me that's ridiculous and childish. It's the adult equivalent to a child hating a classmate for getting an expensive toy.

My upper class friends don't complain about my middle class friends at all, except for most of them having rather rude manners and not being big on reading. Most of my upper class friends need to work 80 hour weeks to make the money they do. For the ones who don't need to work a paying job, they still work 80 hour weeks hands on with nonprofits and are constantly volunteering. They all takes large portions of their earnings and donate as well.

I also have very poor friends. Friends who can barely make rent. Friends who live on the streets everyday. Friends who have never had their own room or their own bed. And one friend who actually jumps trains to get around!Know where I met most of them? Volunteering! And I don't mean me helping them, I mean we met while volunteering together. They never complain about money, and they don't bag on others or myself for having more than them. All they want in life is to give back and help their communities. They consider their work their real life savings.

While trying to explain to my super tall guy friend [Who has randomly popped back into my life, Still don't why yet] that he was being selfish and made something I was sharing him all about him. He told me that I was just playing "The Culture Card", Which we all know is a sugar coated way of saying "The Race Card". I was taken a back, Whenever a friend says something racist to me I'm always surprised. Apparently me being yellow, while stating a fact in any Soc101 textbook is actually me comparing America to Korea. I didn't mention Korea at all, but apparently me just being Korean implies such. I was only observing a basic sociological truth any social scientist would have pointed out, but because I'm Korean I'm "clearly" comparing America to Korea? That is so racist.

I wish my middle class friends were aware of the real riches in volunteering vs complaining and doing nothing about it. Instead of complaining, go out and make a difference! I complain about adoption all the time, but I'm actually going out and doing something about it! I wish they'd pull on a hair net, donate a few boxes of clothes, and help a stranger for once. I wish all of my American friends were more mindful in their daily lives, and more aware of what others have to go through in their daily lives. I just wish everyone cared more; The way me and my foreigner friends do.

I once told a friend that it felt like I cared too much. While everyone always laughs at me, saying they agree and I'm weird for it.. He was the first and only American to reply, "There's no such thing, Others care to little. So there is hope if we all go out and try.

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