Pampered Dogs

I went back to the dentist today, to get one crown and 2 filling replacements. I did one side of my mouth today, and the other side will be in November. Maybe by November I will have forgotten how sore your mouth gets from holding it open for almost 2 1/2 hours. The great part about today is that they have little TVs attached to the dentist chair. They moved the TV above my head, so I could watch it during all the drilling and such. So, I watched HGTV the whole time. If it weren't for the awful sounds coming from my mouth, it would have been quite relaxing. Sometimes I don't mind being a pampered American.

An odd thing about today is that my dogs also had a dental procedure, which was scheduled before I knew I needed dental work. The dogs had to be put out with anethesia (guess no veterinarians want to mess around with the teeth of an awake dog). Then their teeth were cleaned; it's supposed to happen once a year; I wonder what dogs did in the wild without dental appointments?! Little Ariel even has a bandage on her arm where the IV went, and she is milking it for all it's worth, walking around like she had major surgery or something.

I share all this fascinating info. about my dogs because it has made me think about the inequality that America has with the rest of the world. I mean, seriously, we take our dogs to the dentist. In some countries, they eat dogs...or at least keep them outside. Now, I adore my dogs...and they know it...but my dogs are treated better than millions of children who cannot afford food, who don't have access to clean water, who live in danger of malaria and AIDS at every turn. Children in the United States suffer, too...but still, the majority of people in the rest of the world have it a lot rougher than we do. I once read that a person living at the poverty level in America is still among the top 5 percent wealthiest people in the world. A sobering fact. Of whom much is given, much is required.

The lay leader from my church went to the Dominican Republic on a mission trip and was surprised by the children, how they went crazy for balloons and little plastic toys...probably because they had no toys. She made the comment that dogs in the US have more toys than these kids. I think that is sad.

I am not sure what to do with that inequity or the guilt it produces in me. I think it is good to feel guilty every once in a while. It makes you examine yourself and your life more fully. Too often though, I feel a little tinge of guilt, and then resume my normal, pampered, overindulged American lifestyle.

I think God's heart breaks at the suffering of the people He created. I am sure the inequity of our life situations is not lost on Him. Does that mean I stop taking my dogs to get their teeth cleaned or never buy them a toy? I'm not sure that is the answer, because they need care and love, too. But, I feel convicted that I need to be much more proactive about ending injustice in the world...giving some of my physical, spiritual, and emotional resources to help those who suffer. If anyone has some good ideas on how to do that in simple, concrete ways, let me know.

On an unrelated note (or perhaps not so unrelated), because today is the 40th anniversary of Robert F. Kennedy's assassination, here is a quote:

Moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence. Yet it is the one essential, vital quality of those who seek to change a world which yields most painfully to change.
~Robert F. Kennedy, in a speech in Capetown, South Africa, June 6, 1966.