if i were born in a home like the pas family, would i still be passionate about business development for the sake of economic, personal and spiritual growth?
would jj want to make documentaries if he had never seen a film before?
would jess still want to photograph people from other cultures if she had never held a camera or traveled to other countries?
would nova have a passion for educating inner-city youth if she had never gone to college?
i started to think about the ways in which we flesh out our inherent strengths and talents. when God says He gives all of us gifts/talents, do those translate differently depending on the environment you're in? is it possible that if someone becomes exposed to more options (through traveling, education, etc) that their vision will be modified accordingly? will one of the children we worked with be inspired by our film team after seeing their equipment and realizing that that's a possibility? will a part of them come to life when they see something outside of their immediate reality?
will i continue to change the way i flesh out my talents and strengths as i become more aware of the ways in which i can do so? do these kids feel something inside of them that i felt when i was a little girl in a low-income community ... that i was created for more ... that i was made to do something significant ...
i pray they do. and i pray that i continue to have the passion to make sure they actualize the potential that lives inside of them.
would i ... dream of it if i didn't know it existed?
3 comments:
Such great questions. I wish I could answer them. The cynic inside me wants to say no, that they wouldn't know what to dream of, or that their dreams involve things we take for granted. How could they dream of things that they do not know exist? But the optomist inside me wants to believe that children, especially, can dream of more. The same yearning one feels to know God when they do not, when their parents do not--how can that be explained? Children can believe in magic, wish for the ability to fly, believe that some day they will...become a world leader, a doctor, a businessperson. Or were we, as Americans, trained differently? Were we raised to believe we could attain anything while Honduran children are not?
great points! i spoke with a few of the kids in the school we worked with (all of whom used to or still do work in the dump) and they said they wanted to be doctors, teachers, lawyers. it was beautiful. the teachers made us learn the phrase, "see you in the university" so that we could repeat it in spanish to the children. they wanted to kids to get used to hearing "university" so that they would think it was an option for them. the parents of the children pictures in the blog dreamed of their children becoming successful and well educated even though it's not an option for them. just makes me wonder what my responsibility is to people in these environments and if there are more people along my life-path that will encourage me to dream bigger too ...
beautiful post and discussion, krysta.
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