cost of a life

as i mentioned in my last post, jamie and i went to a wedding this weekend in maryland. unfortunately, we didn't take any pictures. i'm really sad about that, but the weather just wasn't cooperative. we got to maryland late friday evening and checked into our B&B, which was in a town with only a volunteer fire department, a couple of churches, and old houses. a large outlet mall had been built across the highway from our little town, so we weren't completely in the middle of nowhere. we had hoped to explore the neighboring towns on saturday, but it rained all day. though we did drive to another town that we heard had a bunch of quaint shops and antique stores, we ended up sitting in the car for 30 minutes waiting for the rain to let up only to realize that it wasn't going to. we got out of the car long enough for us to run in a store and buy me a pashmina because the weather was getting colder, and i had brought a sleeveless dress for the wedding. then we ran down the street to a restaurant so jamie could get a crab meat sandwich. thankfully, the rain stopped just in time for the wedding, which was outdoors by a river. it was a beautiful ceremony. the bride looked gorgeous, the groom was smitten -- i just love weddings. my favorite part of this one was that the couple served their guests communion.

on our 7-hour car ride both there and back, we spent most of our time listening to the audio version of there's no me without you. as i knew he would, jamie became obsessed with finishing the book and wanted to listen every spare chance we got. it's just that good. i became a crying mess again, even though it was my second time reading the book. jamie got teary-eyed in several places and probably would have begun blubbering if not for his man pride. one of the stats that hit us both was that the united states gives a measly $75 million in foreign relief every year. now, i'm not trying to be an america-hater. but here's the thing: a whopping $150+ million was spent on barack obama's inauguration. and for those who are george w. bush fans, $40 million was spent on his second inauguration. how do we justify doubling the amount of money we spend to help struggling nations to throw a party for our president? or how do we justify even spending more than half of our relief budget for a presidential inauguration? it is terribly ridiculous.

a few other things i've found ridiculous recently: 1. that i can go into a restaurant and order a half-pound hamburger and fries. seriously, a half pound? how many people would kill to have that much food to last them days? 2. that we send bags of clothes we simply don't want anymore to goodwill. it's great that we give our stuff away, but sometimes we take for granted that we have the resources to actually own something. 3. that i have advil in my medicine cabinet that i can go get right now and take for a headache and people in africa don't.

i think it's time we all start being thankful for our large portions (and perhaps a bit offended that restaurants actually think we need that much food); our clothes, no matter how worn they are; our everyday medicines; our houses with ragamuffin furniture (ie, furniture that isn't necessarily stylish and doesn't match at all aka our furniture); our cars that get us where we need to go even if the radio is broken (once again, that's ours); and our families, even if they are a little kooky sometimes. maybe you all are there already, but i'm certainly not. when we decided to make an offer on the house we're buying, jamie said, "well, this house is $50,000 less than some of the others we've seen. that's 2 more kids we can adopt!" he was half-joking, but i think it's a good way to live. what if we all started measuring what we think we need in the currency of life? instead of saying to jamie, "i need to buy these cute earrings," what if i put that money towards buying AIDS medicine for one sick person in africa? don't get me wrong, i'm not saying we need to become ascetic and deny ourselves of every pleasure. but what if we considered the cost of a life more often than we consider our own wants? i think that'd be pretty revolutionary...