Healthy Guilt

My family and I have shared along with the Livesay family for years now. We have other connections to Haiti as well,  hso learning about the Livesay's life gave some further insight into the work of our friends and family there. Our "connection" to all of them took a more heartfelt turn with the earthquake in Haiti. I check the blog everyday and today is a particularly touching entry.

They are back home, and feeling guilty about it.  On a very small level I understand this.  Years ago, I went to work with Habitat for Humanity International in SW Georgia.  I spent a few months in West Virginia as well.

Shortly after arriving back from West Virginia I joined my family on a vacation at a resort in the one of the Carolinas. (I don't remember exactly where--Hilton Head?)  The juxtaposition was too much for me.  I felt guilty and overwhelmed by my life in comparison to the lives others live...in many cases by the sheer randomness of who they were born to.  In typical 20-something behavior I took out this guilt on my family with rage and snarky pouting.  They didn't, and probably still don't, understand and the trip goes into the story book of "remember when H did."

I have no idea what the Livesays must feel like today.  But part of me thinks we should all feel like that a bit as we go about our daily lives.  The three part mixture of thankfulness and awareness of how good we have it and a longing to make the life of another better seems to be a worthwhile way to live.

Guilt isn't the most helpful of emotions or reactions...it tends to be debilitating.  But we should feel something beyond ambivalence.