I’m thinking about refugees. Four million of them from Ukraine alone in the current war, another 26 million worldwide who have sought shelter from the storm. Half of them are children.
They have left their homes, their communities, their culture, their land where they lived for generations, probably, and made their way carrying a few belongings in a suitcase, clutching their children at their side, in search of a safe place to live.
War (of course), violence, persecution and poverty are the main reasons they left their homes, unable to sustain themselves anymore. Another 41 million people are still living in their countries but are internally ‘displaced’.
The Syrian civil war alone has created 5 million refugees and 6 million internally displaced. That’s a lot of people. In a country of 22 million it represents half of the population. Another 2 1/2 million need assistance with basic needs like food and medicine because their lives have been shattered.
Here in San Antonio, refugees have come from more than 20 countries to be resettled. Central American asylum seekers have arrived hoping to be recognized and accepted (asylum seekers are technically different from refugees). One of the agencies that provides assistance is the Center for Refugee Services. They serve more than 1,000 people a year from countries torn by violence and war hoping to make their home here.
In San Antonio there are also hundreds of homeless people living on the street. I see them when I ride downtown on my bike. Some are regulars, most seem to be transient. They have totally dropped out of ‘normal’ society for whatever reason and sleep on the street, under a bridge or at one of the shelters provided by the city or various churches. They are refugees too.
And now I’m thinking, ‘Gees, aren’t we all refugees in some sense, driven from our natural home, the place of peace and comfort, by the troubles of this world? Exiled from the mythical Garden of Eden where we lived in innocence (AKA our childhood)?’
‘But that’s not being a real refugee’, you might say. There’s no danger there. I disagree. Every moment we spend away from our natural home we are in danger. That’s where the danger comes from: anger, frustration, depression. Greed, in fact, can be described as an insatiable need for gratification. And why are we so ungratified? Maybe because we’re exiled from our home? Lost and wandering in search of shelter? Drug addiction for example, legal and illegal, is an attempt to fill an emptiness, a longing for comfort and peace, for something transcendent. We have this need and we need it just as much as we need food and water. A person could be living in a house with their family, going to work every day, paying their bills and still be a refugee.
We’re about to celebrate Fiesta here in San Antonio - the traditional Spring Festival, with parades and parties and all kinds of crazy stuff. It’s the first one in two years because of covid so everyone is into it - flowered wreaths on the doors, people making party plans, getting into colorful costumes. My neighbor Bill down the street has built a four wheeled electric cart that looks like a horse with a saddle and everything, towing a trailer with a sound system to ride in the King William parade on the southside of downtown. He was zipping down the street in front of my house testing it out the other day.
Everybody is ready to bust loose with joyous celebration and probably drink alot of alcohol. It’s a family affair, people come from miles around, all over the world actually. We coronate a King of Fiesta and put him on top of a float and bands play and girls twirl and everybody turns out to see it.
Fiesta has its origin in the commemoration of our glorious battle of the Alamo, where everybody died defending their right to have slaves (among other things). And then of course there’s the Mexican tradition mixed in with it (this was a Mexican town after all), piñatas in the shape of stars and decorations up all over town and lots of tacos and tamales and mariachis.
We’re all a family once again. Atleast for 10 days. Then we sweep up the confetti and go back to work. Back to status quo, back to our chosen refugee status and I’m wondering ‘If we’re all refugees here then who is taking care of us?’ Refugees taking care of refugees? The inmates running the asylum?’
Well, alrighty then, let’s be kind. Let’s attempt to be gracious. My refugee recognizes your refugee and we can all help each other try to get back home.
I am an idealist, ofcourse, but maybe that’s where our home is, in some ideal idyllic state of mind that we can’t stop longing for.
Peace out. Peace in. No more war.
podcast music from :: Revival | Beautiful Chill Mix by Blume
00:00:00 • Clemens Ruh - Broken
00:09:48 • Abandoned - Claudiné
refugee status