Haiti Donations and the Expansion of Me

 A Miami tailor went back to his homeland of Haiti and saw extreme poverty. Some people were so poor that they didn't have clothes for 8 or 9-years-old kids. He started donating clothes and supplies. Then another person got involved. 30 years later they're still doing. Still going up into the mountains of Haiti. Still collecting supplies. He's an old man who retired from everyday work years ago. When he stopped by to pick up our supplies he said he's going to do this until the day he dies. This is his mission. This is what makes him happy. 

Master Shantideva (685-763) spent a lot of time talking about self-care and how we think the borders of 'me' are just around our body. But in fact, 'me' borders extend and contract all the time. You become a parent and the 'me' borders expand to include a child. You hurt the child and a parent will attack like it's their own body. Conversely you fall deeply in love with someone, expand your borders, and then you're betrayed by them. The borders of 'me' shrink back. You need to have your foot amputated to save your body and the 'me' contracts to exclude the foot so the rest of 'me' can be saved. And all the time these borders are expanding and contracting around family or friends according to our moods. We always 'stop' at a certain point. Self-care includes a certain number of people and then we stop it. But that's not true. 

Conversely, contracting 'me' triggers depression and despair. Even when someone is our so-called enemy the side effects of hatred and 'taking away' the link causes low-level depression, anxiety, neurosis, and suffering. It may not appear immediately but hatred is low-level radiation that eventually causes lethargy and sickness. 

Despite our contradictory selfishness, we want 'me' to expand because we know it's what makes us happy. That's why people have families, seek out relationships, join movements, go on social media. We're always seeking the expansion of 'me' in some form. That's why people create art. It's the 'me' extending to others. We sit in a theatre for that expansion of self. We know that theatre is fiction but we are so desperate for this expansion that we will buy into the artifice to experience connection. 

"Me" can become as big as a family, a theatre audience, an entire village in Haiti, or a planet.