Enero 15 – What’s Wrong with Seat Warmers?

Post author: Trish Scalese

As I consider all we have experienced these days, I keep going to God with a haunting question: “Why have I been given a life of such abundance and prosperity when others struggle to have the basic needs of life?” I just can’t seem to reconcile myself to this disparity, and it has presented itself to me everyday as we have journeyed along the border.

As we learned about the maquiladoras, the factories that employ Mexicans for low wages and poor working conditions, we were informed that one company manufactures seat warmers for cars. I felt a sickening feeling in my stomach as I remembered an entire family, including small children, huddled around a little fire as they tried to battle the unusually bitter cold temperatures that hit South Texas. What’s wrong with seat warmers? Well, I believe that something is terribly wrong when human beings are unable to have a warm home, and yet they barely get paid a living wage to provide heat for seats in a car. Something indeed is terribly wrong.
I simply can’t get the image out of my mind of those small children shivering in the cold. How I wish we could put aside out political views, misconceptions, and prejudices concerning immigration and remember that there are people, real people, who are struggling to survive each and everyday. When we comfortably sit in our warm cars, there are children who go to sleep in homes without sufficient heating.

As I face this stark reality, I struggle with how I will allow it to make a claim on my life, my choices, my future, and my relationships. These are the questions that are haunting me as I make this journey, and if you have taken the time to read this blog, I encourage you to also consider this unsettling question: What choices will we make in our lives that will enhance, not lessen, the quality of life for all people?

There are so many along the border who are materially poor, but I find myself wondering about how we in the U.S. suffer from a poverty of spirit, a spiritual deprivation, that blinds us to the blatant injustices in the world, cripples our capacity for compassion, and blocks our vision for the common good. It is this that I hope to confront within myself I as return to New York during the coming days. How have I allowed myself to be co-opted by the culture of self-absorption that pervades our culture? What will I do to live as a witness to Jesus Christ and the Gospels? It is my deep hope that the people, places, and experiences from this immersion journey will continue to challenge me, unsettle me, and animate my life. I encourage you to join me on this journey as well…as we work for the transformation of our world.

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