from Martin-Miguel: showing love not pride

When we were out there gleaning on the organic farm, I was expecting to be like the farmers are able to tell us what to do and that for them it was free labor. I had a negative mindset because I wasn’t expecting to be around with the people I knew, it was because I thought I was going to be bossed around and have people to tell me what to do every step and what to pick. But instead I found an environment where my friends and I were able to pick ripe fruits and vegetables. And not only that I had changed my mind set to that there are people that needed these vegetables and fruits to have healthier diets. These are going to kids that don’t really know much about diet and that they just ate whatever was given to them. These kids needed to have their café’s changed and be served something that would benefit them in the long run, rather than just eating something quick.

How is this accomplished? Love! When we think of love nowadays, it is usually associated as a romance type of word. But in this case we use the word love is that feeling that goes out to help the community. I believe it is important to show love towards the community and to help improve what you can. This is harder to achieve than what most people think. Adam Kahane described his trip to the Philippines as being successful and that they were able to get the government to cooperate and try to fix their structure. But he mentions “So I was stunned to learn, by the time my plane landed back in Boston, that the participants already denounced and denounced one another in the newspapers, and the whole exercise had collapsed” (40). This is due to the issue of power. What people don’t realize is how corrupt the Philippines is. The officials are all power hungry and especially in the Philippines the power gets to their heads and that ends up in disaster. It’s true that we have to have power so that people can organize things but most of the time power only destroys things if they are selfish and it shows. If they truly are not selfish they would be willing to give up their pride and show their love to the people that they are serving.