to celebrate our new life together, we thought we would start back at the beginning of the BBC series.
it starts out at the poles, describing the lives of the animals barely surviving the harsh winter. turns out the mortality rate of baby polar bears is 50%. half of the little guys don't make it through the winter.
then it moves to the rain forest. there is a shot of this hilarious bird, doing this hilarious dance. then he runs around, picking up his living space, making it look nice and tidy.
while i was getting quite a kick out of this, the narrator said something that struck me deeply. he explained that it is because life in the rain forest is plentiful, that the bird has the luxury to dance and decorate. "Because there is enough..."
He then goes on to explain that although the rain forest only occupies a measly %2 of earth's total surface area, it claims %50 of the entire world's animals and plants.
that is astonishing to me.
really astonishing.
those numbers are strikingly similar to some other equally astonishing numbers:
According to World Institute for Development Economics Research, the richest 2% of the adults in the world own more than 50% of all household wealth in the world.
It is not that there is not enough.
World Poverty.
Intrinsically overwhelming.
A seemingly insurmountable issue.
What do you do when there is simply not enough to go around?
I have NO idea.
Luckily, we don't really have to figure that out because there is enough.
There is enough.
I just finished reading Mountains Beyond Mountains, a biography about Paul Farmer, a doctor who works in Haiti and is passionate about the poor.
He explains a Haitian proverb, the Haitian peasants' perspective on poverty and suffering:
"God gives but doesn't share." -- God gives in plenty, but it is the job of his people to divide it up.
There is enough.
What are you doing with your enough?
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