There But For Fortune Go You Or I

Those of us who enjoy the comforts of home, with roofs over our heads and food to eat are the lucky ones. Let gratitude for our good fortune inspire us to do what we can to alleviate the plight of the less well-off, people who have been forced by one reason or another to leave the place they called "home". Background tracks: "Soaring over the Ocean" and "Soul Surrender" both by Narek Mirzaei of Music of Wisdom
Photo by Jakob Owens on Unsplash. Thanks to Khaled Hosseini who has given me permission to read from his book “Sea Prayer”

Transcript

Dear friends,

I'd like to begin this meditation with some short extracts from a poem by Warsan Shire.

Warsan Shire is a Somali-British poet.

She was raised in London.

This poem is called Home.

No one leaves home unless home is the mouth of a shark.

You only leave home when home won't let you stay.

You have to understand that no one puts their children in a boat unless the water is safer than the land.

No one crawls under fences.

No one wants to be beaten,

Pitied.

No one chooses refugee camps.

I don't know what I've become,

But I know that anywhere is safer than here.

An extract from Home by Warsan Shire.

I'd like us to begin this meditation with a one-minute pause for reflection.

Sixty seconds to allow us to give thanks if we are lucky enough to have a roof over our heads,

A place we can call home,

Food on our plate and clean water to drink.

A one-minute pause now.

Welcome back.

And now a prayer.

Source of all life,

Guide us as we dedicate this time of reflection to the millions of people seeking sanctuary from conflict and despair.

May each of us be inspired to respond with love,

Understanding and action to ease the pain of our fellow human beings.

I'd like to read something for you now.

Khaled Hosseini is the author of The Kite Runner.

Khaled has given me permission to read from his book Sea Prayer.

The book is a letter written to his own son.

It's inspired by the story of little Alain Kordi,

The three-year-old Syrian boy who drowned in the Mediterranean while trying to reach Europe in 2015.

And it's inspired by the Anyone who's seen the photo,

It's a photo by the Turkish photojournalist Nilofer Demir.

You will never forget Alain if you've seen the photo.

The fully dressed boy was lying face down on the beach,

His face in the sand,

Meeting the edge of the water.

The little dead boy on the beach symbolised the plight of the people fleeing Syria at the time.

And the photo still represents the pain faced by people forced to leave home.

So words from Sea Prayer.

Your mother is here tonight Marwan,

With us on this cold and moonlit beach.

Among the crying babies and the women worrying in tongues we don't speak.

Afghans and Somalis and Iraqis and Eritreans and Syrians.

All of us impatient for sunrise.

All of us in dread of it.

All of us in search of home.

I have heard it said we are the uninvited,

We are the unwelcome,

We should take our misfortune elsewhere.

But I hear your mother's voice over the tide and she whispers in my ear,

Oh but if they saw my darling,

Even half of what you have,

If they only saw,

They would say kinder things surely.

I look at your profile in the glow of this three quarter moon my boy.

I said to you,

Hold my hand,

Nothing bad will happen.

These are my only words,

A father's tricks.

It slays your father,

Your faith in him.

Because all I can think tonight is how deep the sea and how vast,

How indifferent,

How powerless I am to protect you from it.

Pray God steers the vessel through,

When the shores slip out of eyeshot and we are flyspeck,

Back in the heaving waters,

Pitching and tilting,

Easily swallowed.

Because you,

You are precious Marwan,

The most precious there ever was.

I pray the sea knows this.

Inshallah.

How I pray the sea knows this.

Words there from Sea Prayer by Khalad Hosseini.

In the year after Alain's death,

4176 people died or went missing,

Attempting similar journeys.

The book Sea Prayer is dedicated to the thousands of refugees who have been lost at sea,

Fleeing war and persecution.

We pray that all of us will learn to see beyond borders and languages,

Beyond cultures and religions,

To recognise the inherent dignity and worth of every individual,

Every child,

Woman and man.

We ask for the wisdom to remember that we are all part of a larger human family.

The movement of people from one location to another,

One country or one continent to another,

Is nothing new.

Migration is as old as humanity itself.

This coming and going has been driven by any number of factors.

The earliest reasons for migration were probably a matter of basic survival,

Securing food and resources,

Ensuring greater safety,

Adapting to changes in climate over time and relieving population pressure.

And apart from necessity,

You can imagine there must have been people who just wanted to explore,

People who wanted to find out what was over the next mountain,

What was beyond the next sea.

And I'm sure there have been very many people moving away simply to seek a better life.

And who could blame anyone for that?

Today,

These seekers of a better life abroad would be objected to as simply economic migrants.

The UN tell us that as of the end of 2022,

There are more than 100 million refugees in the world.

People who have been forced to flee war,

Conflict and persecution.

100 million people.

So many people in our time lacking a basic necessity,

A place to call home.

Faced with a statistic like this,

We would do well to remember the words of Rabbi Jonathan Sachs.

He says,

Refugees are not an inconvenience,

They are a summons to conscience.

The Mediterranean has become a watery grave for so many refugees.

The International Organization for Migration estimate that 30,

000 refugees and migrants have been reported dead or missing on their journey across the Mediterranean to Europe.

And that is only since the 1st of January 2000.

In case we become desensitized by the numbers,

Let's have another one minute pause for reflection,

Just now.

60 seconds for reflection.

Welcome back.

Yes,

We can become desensitized by the numbers.

Millions displaced.

Tens of thousands lost in the Med.

Hundreds missing when a refugee boat capsizes.

By grouping people together in statistics like this,

We fail to see the faces of the lost.

All of them different.

And we fail to appreciate the pain and the suffering of the refugees.

And we fail to appreciate the pain and the suffering of the people left behind.

Each one of these numbers is a person.

A real person.

Someone just like you.

Just like me.

A person with the same hopes for happiness.

Someone full of dreams.

An individual with potential.

Hoping for a better life.

Each one setting out on this perilous journey in hope.

And each one a life extinguished too soon.

In other circumstances,

This could be you.

In other circumstances,

This could be me.

It makes us think,

There but for fortune go you or I.

Let's have another opportunity for reflection now.

Another one minute pause.

Welcome back.

When we see photographs and reports of refugees,

They are our brothers and sisters.

Words from the Dalai Lama.

And you know,

Response to this suffering,

Our reaction to people fleeing war and suffering,

This would be the measure of our humanity.

Because after all,

Here we are,

On a fragile,

Vulnerable planet.

We see large parts of the planet on fire.

In other parts,

People drowning in floods.

What would it say about a civilization on the point of climate disaster?

If we still divide people according to wealth or colour.

If we still fail to take care of one another.

We are all in this together.

All the great religions,

As well as humanists and agnostics of goodwill,

They all preach the same message.

The golden rule.

The teaching is very simple.

We should treat other people as we would wish them to treat us.

And we should refrain from doing to other people whatever it is that we wouldn't like done to ourselves.

The universal message is simply be a good Samaritan.

Care for the poor and the most vulnerable.

Migration is not an anomaly.

Migration is not something new.

Population movement has been woven into the fabric of human existence since time immemorial.

Way back to the time when our distant ancestors migrated out of Africa.

Migration is evidence of our basic desire for a better life.

Each of us in our own way can reflect on what we might do to improve the lot of refugees.

People who are having to leave the place they call home.

The starting off point for each of us will be to pause and reflect on how we would feel if we were in the unhappy position of being a refugee or an asylum seeker.

We can't go wrong in our approach if we use the golden rule.

We can't go wrong if we try to imagine ourselves in their position.

I hesitate to say in their shoes.

More than 60 years ago,

President John F.

Kennedy,

In his inaugural address,

Issued this warning in relation to world poverty.

He said,

These words still act as a reminder to us today.

In a world where the most striking differences between us are the differences between those who have and those who have not.

The small minority with the resources,

The comforts and the security,

And the large majority with little or nothing.

A comfortable minority safe behind their walls and gates,

And so many fleeing from war or famine or environmental chaos.

The many with little resources,

Few comforts,

And no security.

And haven't we all noticed how people with money and skills are never considered refugees,

Never referred to as economic migrants?

Because money talks.

People with money can travel the world as they wish and be welcomed everywhere.

If JFK was here today,

And if he was to issue a warning for our time,

He might say something like this,

The message is simple.

We need to lower the walls of our fortresses of privilege and open our hearts to the needy people shivering outside.

Why?

Because in a just world the measure of our society is not how we treat the richest among us,

But how we support refugees and the poor.

A final pause for reflection now before some closing words.

A thought to end our meditation.

The world is too beautiful to be praised by only one voice.

May you have the courage to sing your part.

The world is too broken to be healed by only one set of hands.

May you have the courage to use your gifts.

So as we conclude this time of reflection,

May the spirit of love and understanding guide all our actions and words.

That each of us might lend a helping hand where we can.

Let us all be a source of support for those in need.

Remembering that there but for fortune go you or I.

Namaste.

Reviews

Tony with tears running down my face I believe this was your best & most important words of wisdom ever.
With what is happening here in the US I fear for all. I so am ashamed of what is taking place here and feel so helpless. Who is next runs through my thoughts?
Thank you for your words of kindness and compassion.

I loved the poem, Home. Perfect explanation of the why people risk their lives. If only, we especially in the states, could begin working on solutions instead of pandering fear. Thank you for the reminder to live by the golden rule. 🙏🏻

So compassionate Tony. Everyone here in the US (except Native Americans) has roots in immigration. We should welcome those seeking refuge and a better life with open arms. We certainly have the means to do so.

A very powerful and moving reminder of the plight of others... and how we respond with love. Thanks, as always. Namaste. 💛🙏 xxx

Touching ! Simply touching!
Beautifully done 🙏❤️☮️

Much to think about Tony. It can be so overwhelming…