Scene from a recent Saturday Compassion Through Action distribution for food, clothing, shoes, blankets, hygiene items and more outside the Espanola Pathways Shelter on Riverside Drive. Courtesy photo

BY JEFF PADILLA
Compassion Through Action
Espanola

Do you know hunger? Have you ever known what hunger feels like? I have not. Stop what you are doing and ask yourself one question: In the history of my life, have I ever gone to bed with the feeling of hunger in the pit of my stomach, fallen asleep, and awoken the next morning with that same feeling—even once? Again, I have not.

I think about where humanity is right now in the history of our existence. I think about bankers on Wall Street giving themselves $80 billion in bonuses every year. I think about how many images of wealth we are fed in the media and how those images fuel the dreams and desires of the masses. Then I think about that child born in India, Africa, the U.S.A, or most anywhere these days, who—through no fault of his/her own—will know hunger most every day of his/her life; a life that will most likely end before reaching adulthood.

Have we truly evolved? Are we still evolving as an intelligent species? Are we unified? Are we truly compassionate? The answer is most assuredly no. Most of us simply embrace the good fortune we had by being born into the society and the family that we did. It is unfortunate for those who were not as lucky, but what can I do about it?

Someone once told me, “You can’t change the world, but you can change the world for one person.” I live my life by following the ideal of this saying, and I ask that you consider doing the same. Ask yourself what you can do to ease the suffering of one person who is not getting enough food to eat. That person is not hard to find: the need is all around us.