Day 18: Landscapes

"We are a landscape of all that we have seen." ––Isamu Noguchi

A good friend of mine here brought up this quote to our group today and we all shared how working on the border this summer has affected our own "landscapes." 

Our boss said that being here has made her reflect on the varying levels to which different people are handed things in life. For the people coming through this shelter, their success is achieved through hard work within a harsh bureaucracy. But there are so many people who never have to worry about working their way through a strict and discriminatory system.  

My friend then talked about the ocean, and about how even though water is brought every day to the shore, it also erodes the shore. I liked that analogy. I thought about all the growth and erosion that happens for those once they arrive in the United States, and about all the growth and erosion that I've experienced in the little over two weeks I've been here. 

She connected this to the "Tyranny of Urgency," or the idea that "urgent" tasks like phone calls and meetings often trump "important" or more long-term goals. The sense of urgency here is different. Day to day, we focus on what really matters––calling a migrant's family member,  dishing out a hot American Red Cross meal (of hamburger helper and bread), getting a person a change of clothes, or giving a newly born child a place to lie down.

I try to embody this. I try not to worry so much about a missed phone call, or responding to an email right away. Time marches on and I miss things, but I tell myself I'm getting to what's most important. 

Other volunteers talked about the new gratitudes they feel for luxuries as small as fruit or beds, the new frustrations about the immigration system that come up every day, and the unexpected things (like the cat that arrived today and was picked up by an organization in El Paso that specifically takes care of migrants' pets while their owners in transition). 

In honor of the discussion about landscapes, I took some photos of the landscape in El Paso. 




Comments

  1. outdoor59June 12, 2021 at 4:08 PM

    I appreciate the "tyranny of urgency" discussion. Many of us rush through life and stress over minor bs instead of focusing on the important issues. I try (often unsuccessfully) to abide by the motto, "Do what matters, and disregard the rest" when I live my life day by day.

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