The Three Gems of Buddhism and My Christmas Feast

The guilt of global inequality is heavy. It sits like a brick in my stomach, causing me to resemble many of the children around the world with protruding tummies. The only thing is that my belly is sticking out because I have stuffed it full of more food than most global citizens eat in a week, whereas theirs stick out as a result of starvation and malnutrition.
As I sat down for Christmas dinner this year, celebrating a holiday that I am both disenchanted by with its religious background, and appalled at with its modern deformed and demented pop culture face, I couldn't stop thinking about the brutal inequality of the world we live in. There I was, living in one of the most wonderful and beautiful places in the world, where luxury cars are the norm and a simple three-bedroom house sells for at least $500 000. At the very same time, on the other side of the world and even just on the other side of the Burrard Inlet on the downtown East Side of Vancouver, poverty was/is the norm and people were/are hungry. While I am happily filling my plate with more food than should physically fit in my stomach, in a warm house, surrounded by friends, family and laughter, someone is hungry, cold and shivering just a few kilometers away. In fact, most of the world is suffering while I am indulging. Every once and a while I have a moment of epiphany that these poor and hungry people aren't just a backdrop in my life and world image, they are real! Real suffering. And so, the savory sensations of my Christmas dinner were flavored with guilt. But what can I do? Wrap up my turkey and stuffing and send it to Uganda? I feel so helpless in this world sometimes.
Unfortunately, I can’t even afford to donate much to this cause that nags at my conscience – I too am struggling to climb out of this deep hole of inequality. We might live in a pretty decent area, but my family has never been able to keep up with the norms of luxury that this area of the world is accustomed to, and by comparison we are downright poor. As I was growing up, I never realized how little money my family had compared to those of my peers –the thought never crossed my mind, I was just a happy carefree kid. My parents struggled to make ends meet, but they managed to provide my sister and me with the most amazing childhood I could have hoped for, full of things that money cannot buy –as cheesy as that sounds. (This, I will set aside for another day of blogging). Now that I’m older, the perspective is clearer: we might think of ourselves as poor when we compare ourselves to those around us, but this is just a bubble –a completely inaccurate image of the majority of the world. How can I call myself poor as I sit here with a belly contently full of good food, in good health, in a warm house typing away on my very own computer? Compared to most of the people in the world, particularly in the Southern Hemisphere, I’m rich. I am so lucky. But what do I do now? How do I help to level the field, reduce the inequality, share the wealth, lighten the brick in my stomach? The problem is so vast and complicated. I am overwhelmed.
Over a year ago, a friend and I sat down and made about 50 sandwiches, packed them neatly into a bag, bussed downtown and walked around in the pouring rain, handing them out to hungry people on the streets. We ended up soaking wet and tired, but feeling very good about the whole thing. A handful of the Eastside residents got a sandwich from us. One sandwich on one day. So small. Did we make even a minute ripple on the surface? I can only hope so. All we can do is try.
Being just one small person staring in the face of a monster as daunting and overwhelming as our global inequality makes me feel so helpless and useless, but it also makes me realize that there needs to be a collective effort to change it. I'm thinking right now that the Three Gems of Buddhism might be a good place to start: Love Compassion and Understanding are the beginning.