Parbati

Parbati

October 20, 2010

Why is it that my ego clings to the concept of lack? 

With my gadgets and goodies in abundance, I sit with my new laptop and Nano. My new wardrobe of six garments hanging hand washed on the line, twice as many as the average woman. In Nepal, I am a woman of affluence. My dollar traveling the distance of any desire. My nice hotel is $15 a night. A lovely meal in a fancy restaurant is $10. A big breakfast is $1.50 with a 10% tip.

Here there is a harvest in every yard where people labor in the hot sun with a scythe and bamboo digger for their daily needs. In this land of 40% unemployment, families are divided by the lure of jobs in other countries. Fathers send paychecks and cell calls. 

Parbati, contently making her pension, the equivalent of $7.50 a month, meets her humble need for sugar, spice and milk. When I return, I must generate the equivalent of 756,000 rupees a month or 9,072,000 a year to meet my humble needs.

Inflation is the insanity we have all bought into. Our passive complacency perpetuates it. Lulled by the average income we surrender our existence to the dollar bill. It makes me question my participation. Could I begin again in a new land? Become an ex-Patriot to a culture that, like a cancer, spreads to the far reaches of the earth, greedily consuming the simple life.

In Nepal, wealth is measured in loved ones and the abundance of bright flowers necessary for ceremony.

Why is it that my ego clings to the concept of lack?

Choosing to see myself as the status on my income tax.