Bless the hands that prepared it

The power is out on my block this morning. If I was a normal riser and not a food service worker, I probably wouldn't have even noticed. PGE promises to restore everything around 7 am. The outage has me thinking about my own luxurious life that I often take for granted.

Lately, my mind has been working better. I am starting to put two and two together and form new standards for myself. They aren't born out of guilt, rather they come from a place of compassion and desire to alleviate human suffering in the world where it is within my power to do so.

But how am I contributing to the suffering in this world? They told me to follow the money in university. Now that I am entering grad school, they're saying follow the supply chain. So I have been and what I have found is truly disturbing.

My clothes are made overseas by workers who are paid poverty wages and work more than I do to stay alive. My food is produced by children or illegal immigrants who don't get paid what any of us would consider a living wage. Electronics, so prevalent and necessary to modern society, have their metal elements deeply rooted in the crisis in the Congo. And all of this is allowed to continue because it's inconvenient to pay the price for the goods we want to be produced in an ethical way.

It's work to follow the supply chain. There is a real economic cost to paying fair wages to everyone along the way. We're still caught up in stepping on the little guy for the things we want, especially if he lives in a third world country, is a woman or a child. These are inconvenient truths of our overly convenient lives. We didn't start this cycle, but we can chose to end it in our own lives.

Follow the supply chain. Be the change you wish to see in the world. Know if you are blessing the hands that prepared it by setting it in front of you in the first place. The market place has a way of adapting to consumer demand. Ultimately, these things are allowed to continue because the collective we has not demanded they change yet. So what's in your power to control? Will you bless the hands that prepared it?