The things we carried

The Things They Carried is a collection of related stories by Tim O'Brien, about a platoon of American soldiers in the Vietnam War, originally published in hardcover by Houghton Mifflin, 1990. While apparently based on some of O'Brien's own experiences, the title page refers to the book as "a work of fiction"; indeed, the majority of stories in the book possess some quality of metafiction. Even though the characters are based on a work of fiction, they show similarities to real soldiers that O'Brien knew during his time in the war.  summary from wikipedia                                                                   



I cannot tell a lie.  I've not read the book but I think my mom said it was well written.  But the title has always stayed with me and I always think of it when we are lugging loot half way around the world.  This title and this book is about figurative "things they carried" but it comes to mind every time we are literally "carrying things" around the world.  So, let me start off with the metaphors that always come to mind in the packing/unpacking process of life overseas. 



1. Too much:As with the title of the book, I do think that our possessions are symbols of our essence-- a fact that for all the wealthy of the world is a real burden that we do and should feel.  Why are we stressed with our stuff-- because its too much.  On some deep level we know its too much, its not fair, its not quite fine.  And ultimately I think each individual is accountable to this reality, but on another level many of us are operating as "sheep" in a culture and time in history that is also responsible in some manner for creating a facade of our human existence.

Sometime this summer, I read the proverb 30:8-9 "Give me neither poverty nor riches.  But give me only my daily bread.  Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, 'Who is the Lord?' Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God."  I've enclosed a little commentary below on this proverb but when I read it this summer it totally struck me as a very true reality--I coming from the culture with too much that honestly is not in touch with our need for God, and then living in a culture where too little leads to behaviors that are dishonoring to God.  And to think the wise thing to do is to ask for only our daily bread.  That is somehow scary. And yet obviously also echoed in the Lord's prayer.  I honestly don't know what that would look like to live that out. 



Neither Poverty nor Riches   By Justin Borgerwith assistance from Generous Giving staff
We can tell a lot about people’s desires by listening to what they ask for. Understanding what people want is of more than peripheral importance, for nothing shapes us more than what we want. Desire molds the motives that shape our lives. And because of this, our hungers must be carefully tended to, not just so that we can satisfy them, but for a more important reason: so that we can guard them from what is bad and guide them toward what is good. In a world full of foods and pleasures that seldom satisfy, this endeavor calls for a great deal of wisdom.The book of Proverbs contains a great deal of wisdom for choosing the “better” thing (see Proverbs 15:16, 17; 16:8, 16, 19, 32; 17:1; 19:1, 22; 22:1; 28:6). However, it is interesting that there is only one prayer of request in the entire book. That prayer, found at the back of the Proverbs in the “Sayings of Agur,” is an “exemplary prayer”—it teaches us what to ask for:

[G]ive me neither poverty nor riches. But give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, ‘Who is the LORD?’ Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God. (Proverbs 30:8-9)

Agur asks for a middle way that straddles the extremes: a middle-class life between wealth and poverty. This request—so foreign to most of our prayers today—shows that a healthy fear of wealth and possessions and the effect they can have on us is not unrelated to the fear of the Lord (Proverbs 1:7; 9:10). We should never forget that Solomon himself—one of the authors of the book of Proverbs—failed to apply the principle of moderation found Agur’s prayer (along with the specific set of guidelines for moderation for kings in Deuteronomy 17:14-17) to his own life and suffered miserably for it. And if extravagance led to the demise of the wisest man ever to live, how much more careful should we be! 

2. How does this relate to our luggage? (Mark a silver-medallion member: 3 x 50lb pieces of luggage-a privilege that extends up to 8 people on his itinerary)

I often try to tell myself, "you think too much" but I am responsible for our privilege and so at this point, I'd rather spend time processing it and knowing that with conviction, and wisdom, we will navigate our personal and cultural responsibilities that come with our privilege.  So here's a sample list of things that we brought that I feel are probably legit within our circumstances, and things that probably aren't-- and the things that aren't are probably not "fine" regardless of our circumstances. :)

1. The cloth diapers that my sister gave me, that someone had given her, that were very gratefully received by two Ugandan sisters who've just had their first babies-- diapers are a financial burden to the average family here (and in the US for that matter)
2. The various packages that people sent to us to bring them (the counselling department, a sponsored boy here, daniel's teacher from last year, other missionaries on campus, etc). Again, I'm assuming our generosity will be what we're accountable and I'll allow the recipients to sort out their own stewardship of their things. 
3. Mark's work things; mostly camping gear for his Mt. Elgon trip-- I'm letting those things be on his conscience!4. Homeschooling material: Hopefully legit and hopefully we can use and share what we have appropriately5. Food stuffs:  Is everything consumable okay to bring? Smores for the kids when we go camping next week, chocolate chips, nuts, etc? In the organic sense of this question, carrying food around the world with its carbon footprint, etc, I'm sure the answer to this is surely "not necessary" but oh so tasty!6. Clothing:  I suspect we have access to "too much" but then again in this context, i also feel lucky that we can easily share with so many people.  I don't tend to feel to guilty about this. 7. A plasma car: You help me judge this one: see picture!
8. Plastic bibs and bobs: Boo!  I hope to really internalize how bummed out I feel when I get home and realize we really don't need so many "ponies", dolls, etc...
 9. The plastic bouncy spider ball--the ball is too small for most of the kids, the cloth "spider" that goes on top actually makes it harder to bounce on, I bought it impulsively because it was half priced and was marketed to mothers like me. 
10. Canon Elph camera: A tiny camera that has taken all the photos of the recent blog posts-- much better for life with kids and on the go... not regretting it yet-- though do we really need a good SLR, a Flip video camera, a cool Canon Elph... all the proverbs questions come to mind! :)
11. Body pillow, body pillow cover-- Mary, like Mark tends to sleep full body on her pillows and I thought she'd think a body pillow would be awesome... but really, was that necessary.  certainly not. 
12. Books on raising children, on Rwanda, on Christianity and culture, on eating well, living well, etc.... not ready to assume that books are ever bad, yet. :) 


So, I could go on, but I think my main questions relate to "all things plastic", "and that has made all the difference"(this is the category where Mark says i can be brilliant or really "whiff": plasma car=brilliant; body pillow=whiff), carbon imprint--- sort of a daunting issue all the way around as our present life inevitable means flying internationally with all that entails; and the more vast issue of our material life in a developing world.  And this is definitely something that becomes nuanced the longer we live overseas but, ultimately, I feel very much a learner on this and am not working up any book proposals on this topic as I suspect I'm much more guilty than worthy regarding this topic.