One thing I would like to add here, is that although I have gone
to several more grocery stores since the time I wrote this in preparation for
the floods and had the same bad luck in obtaining food, I have noticed a
drastic difference from the United States that cannot go without mention. In my hunt for food and water, I
came down another empty aisle that had a few dried noodle soups left on one
shelf. One older woman helped herself to
the final few cups of noodles, placing them in her shopping cart, when two
younger boys ran up to try to grab some of the last few. As they turned around defeated, she said
something in Thai, and handed them each one of her soup bowls. One other young woman was also at the scene,
and this old woman offered her another soup bowl. She started off with three soup bowls, one of
the only items of food in the ENTIRE store, and ended up walking away with none.
I have never, in my life, seen such generosity and overall caring for others. It is truly remarkable. This is not the only example I have witnessed
– just yesterday, when I was walking home from the BTS (Skytrain), an old man
was trying to mortar and lay bricks together to build a wall around his small shop in
preparation for the floods. Two men who
exited the train with me (one was wearing a suit!), took the mortar shovel from
the old man, and knelt down to help him.
Within a few minutes, they were finished with the entire wall, grabbed
their briefcases that they had left at their side, and continued walking
home - two total strangers. I stood there the entire time like
an idiot, unable to process what had just happened.
There are two quotes in Buddhism that I think help to explain what
I witnessed. The first, I have already
introduced, at the beginning of this segment.
"If you light a lamp for somebody, it will also brighten your path." The second is below:
“We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts.
With our thoughts, we make our world.”
Today – I saw how we truly
can make our world.
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