Bread and Danish

December 14, 2009

An odd combination, but not to worry, I will tell you how I got there…

School starts here at 7.45 a.m., and because there is no longer a call to prayer at 5.30 and I live only ten minutes away from where I work, I can ‘sleep in,’ in a manner of speaking. Every morning as I get dressed, I have fallen into the habit of listening to the five-minute religious commentary at 6.45 a.m. on the one station I receive clearly on my hand-me-down radio. I never intended to listen, as I am no fan of organized religion in general and even hold a bit of a grudge, as the German state imposes a church tax on all earnings unless you specifically opt out in writing, as I learned much to my dismay.

However, I do listen to the music and the news (as a good political science teacher ought) and the noise provides company as I start my day, so I never bother to switch off the radio until just before I leave. Yesterday’s commentary struck me with its simplicity and its appropriateness, for the pastor recounted the tale of the five loaves and two fish (Mark 6:30-44) that were sufficient to feed five thousand men. At first the men all protested when asked to share, saying it was ridiculous, they would never have enough for everyone. The skeptics were gently encouraged to try and see, and were amazed and delighted when all were satisfied.

The pastor  - most originally, I thought - compared this to the climate meeting presently taking place in Copenhagen. Everyone is convinced that the problems are truly too massive to overcome, that we are all doomed at this point no matter what we do, because the ice caps are melting, species are threatened by extinction, there is no longer a way to fix the holes in the ozone layer or to prevent islands from being swept away by rising water levels, and the list goes on. Following this logic, there would be little point in making an effort (or attempting to divide 2 loaves of bread to feed 5,000 people), as it would be doomed to failure anyway.
Yet, said the pastor, what we need in Copenhagen is someone who will remind us not to give up, but to try – to turn down the heat in our homes by a few degrees, to use our air conditioners less, to turn off the water as we brush our teeth (remembering that in many villages across the world water does not come out of a faucet but must be fetched from a well), to use bicycles or public transportation whenever possible, to recycle and repair more, and to throw away less  - in short, to give the natural resources we use in our daily lives  the same consideration as we would money or any other precious commodity, because whereas money can be earned when it has run out, depleted or destroyed natural resources cannot be restored to us.

What we all need on occasion is someone like the courageous young girl who addressed the United Nations some time ago:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQmz6Rbpnu0

because ultimately, our only hope right now is to try to and make whatever small difference we can as individuals, in the hopes that -as with the loaves and the fish- it might just possibly be enough.

About the Author : Tamara-Diana Braunstein brings us her stories from Senegal every week. She was born in Brooklyn, New York. She is a restless wanderer who earned an MA from the University of Freiburg and has worked in a youth hostel in the French Alps, a law firm in Montreal, the Metropolitan Museum of Art as well as in university press publishing. At the moment her home base is Dortmund, Germany after recently returning from teaching in Dakar, Senegal. You can follow learn more about Tamara’s experiences at her blog senegalschoolmarm.blogspot.com