Too Close For Comfort
I was struck by one of those thoughts the other day. You know the kind, where there's an audible "crack", and the ground beneath your feet shifts suddenly, throwing you off balance. I'll tell you about it, and you can let me know how it strikes you.
Pete and I were checking out laptopgiving.org, and discussing the whole One Laptop Per Child concept when the "incident" occurred. Admittedly, I was dead-set against the idea when it first came out. Nicholas Negroponte is brilliant, but this idea was crazy. I was bothered by all the energy going into the development of a $100 laptop when there are countless children still dying because of a lack of clean water, food, medicine worth pennies, or a mosquito bite. I'm still not sold on the concept , but I'm open to having my mind changed. It remains to be seen.
Regardless, there we were checking out the features of the XO laptop on the impressive web site. Heavy duty antennae, rotating screen, built-in camera and microphone - this thing has everything you need to get online. (Not much of a hard drive, but that's beside the point.)
Wait a minute...
Online?
Built-in camera and microphone?
And then it hit me like a ton of bricks.
I thought about all the people I met in Ethiopia, Uganda, Rwanda, and Kenya earlier this year. The adults. The children.
What if?
What if, by some miracle, one of these friends gets online?
What if my computer beeped one night?
What if I tapped the keyboard and saw one of those faces staring back at me?
"Hi Mike. I haven't eaten in two days. What should I do?"
"Hi Mike. My little sister has malaria and she'll be dead in a week if we don't get her medicine. We have no money. What should I do?"
What if my friend looks through her screen, over my shoulder, and sees my four walls and a roof, and my hardwood floors. What if she sees my dinner on the table. What if she sees my flat screen and multiple pairs of shoes by the door?
What if?
The world just got way too small.
"He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'
Matthew 25:45
Brilliant, I love it. So Mike, what do we do?
Posted by: Tom Davis | November 23, 2007 at 06:53 PM
the truth is, once everyone has a built-in camera, we can run but we can't hide.
Posted by: robert | November 23, 2007 at 07:07 PM
Wow.
Hmmm... wow.
A few thoughts come crowding in at the same time:
-Finally!
-Am I the only one feeling sick to my stomach that we are not moved to action by seeing how THEY live... and may only be moved by guilt when they find out how WE live...?
-I'm a little afraid of what happens after that. What happens when millions of people find out (I mean, REALLY KNOW) that we let their families starve to death.
Posted by: wilsonian | November 23, 2007 at 07:44 PM
Just ruined my nice comfortable night, in my nice comfortable house.....
Posted by: Pete | November 23, 2007 at 10:42 PM
What if. Keith and I have been thinking through this as an option for laptops for our kids. The GO/GO idea sends a message to our kids of generosity and life - and I think your post has possibly tipped the scale to this as an option for their Christmas presents.
I would love it if there was some way to connect the kids with the others who receive their "give one" computer. Some way to have their lives entwine together. Pen pals tied together virtually through computer screens.
How could this change everything for them? We have a couple of Compassion kids who we write and support - but knowing they could "talk" together - share their lives - learn from each other. How could that change everything?
Posted by: Heidi Renee | November 24, 2007 at 06:00 AM
After a weekend of intense extended family interaction, with lots of over consumption ... when I didn't get to my computer and my GoogleReader says I have 114 posts to read ... yours was the first one I read, and I know why. Thanks for sharing your heart and your passion with us; it's so important.
Posted by: sonja | November 24, 2007 at 10:38 AM
I'm with Tom. What do we do?
Just before reading this posting, I was checking my email. I read emails in my inbox from people I met in Uganda last summer. Ironically they were telling me how sick their children are, and how they need money for food and education.
What do we do? Where do we start? How do we help? It's more complicated than I thought it ever would be.
Posted by: Trisha | November 24, 2007 at 09:49 PM
I hear you, Trisha, but I actually don't think it's complicated at all.
That's pretty much it. How do we do it? Here's a couple of thoughts:
+ Live more simply
+ Give away more
+ put the "other" first
If we who call ourselves "Christian" actually did what the guy called "Christ" told us to, the world would be a different place. "Heaven on Earth", you could almost say.
Posted by: Mike | November 25, 2007 at 08:35 AM
PS. That's the real beauty of Christ's teaching. In hindsight we can see that he was actually telling us how to live with each other, how to deal with (or prevent, but it's too late for that) the world's problems.
This shouldn't surprise us at all, seeing as God has a redemptive plan for all of Creation.
Posted by: Mike | November 25, 2007 at 08:54 AM
Mike,
You get it. See
http://daveshields.wordpress.com/2007/11/26/xo-laptop-mike-todd-gets-it-will-you/
Keep up the good work,
Lynwood David Shields
Posted by: dave shields | November 26, 2007 at 05:28 AM
bring on the webcams and laptops. and the resulting fire and brimstone.
we've had it coming a long long time.
mea culpa.
Posted by: beth | November 26, 2007 at 08:55 AM