july 1: jean, from haiti

may i introduce you to mr. jean.  he is from haiti, but he has lived elsewhere since graduating high school, and has lived in the city for over 10 years now.   he currently is going through the application process to work at the united nations.  he speaks four languages, and is very intellectual.  plus he has cool style, so that's kind of cool too..


jean and i shared a lengthy conversation when we were both sitting on a bench on broadway, after he asked me if i was german!  i told him that i was not, and actually from utah (therefore bringing up that i was mormon), and we went on to share ideas that we both have about the world and the existence of mankind.   no big deal, right?   ;)

his wisdom:

he thinks it is important to be kind to the animals and bugs, because for all we know, they just started their 9-5 job and they are just doing the best they can, too.  how are we to know?  we've never lived a day in a cockroach's life!  we ought to be nice to everyone and everything.

and that goes even more for people.  we judge so quickly based off of outward appearances, but until we truly understand someone, we should be open to talking to them and seeing what they have to teach us.  we are all much more similar than we would ever know.

the pursuit of wealth is an entirely selfish thing, he says.  we don't say that we want us and all of our neighbors to be wealthy, we just say that we want to be wealthy ourselves.  and a rich man is in a much more dangerous place than anyone else, for there is pride and deceit and many other things that will ruin a man if he gets wealthy and is not careful.

this part of the conversation was reminiscent of the scripture  

"It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."  - Matthew 19:24

perhaps the most profound thing that he said was regarding darkness.  he said,

"if i close my eyes and walk around, i see no barriers, but as soon as i open my eyes, i see the places that i can't go, and i see the barriers that i will run into if i try.  i will see the curb that will trip me, the building that i can't walk through, and the car that is going to hit me.

 i see many limitations.

  but in life, god has a way of getting past those limitations. 

that is why we close our eyes to pray.  

in the darkness, you see no barriers to what you can do, because you can truly do anything with god helping you.  he gets past any barriers.  if you can live the way that you pray, giving no regard to your barriers, then you can do extraordinary things."