Are you power tripping?

Today is Monday August 9th 2010, and I have decided to ask myself if I am on a “POWER TRIP”, because sometimes my imagination would run away with me, bringing along the everyday reality that we live here in Labuga.

You see, when I ask myself, for example, these particular questions: When is it disempowering to offer help? When does it work against, rather for another’s growth? It has been a busy week in Labuga, and the community at large is divided by the different activities that are taking place during the first week of August 2010. Some of these activities are related to spiritual and educational aspects within various Garifuna communities. I happen to believe that these two “CONCEPTS” -- rather than subjects -- are vital to the survival of the Garifuna People especially for the future generation.

I happen to ask myself the first question, “When is it disempowering to offer help?” Because for the most part I have been a community activist and I am aware of the “Power Tripping” that is going on here in Labuga in the spiritual and educational arena.

I would to borrow this phrase because it is a concept that I would like to share with you the reader. It goes like this: “It is better to teach a man to catch his own fish, rather than have him depend on you to catch one for him."

When your help is offered in such a way that it creates dependence rather than rapid independence, when you allow another, in the name of compassion, to begin to rely on you rather than on themselves, you are on your way to a Power Trip.

I have been a volunteer in the educational field here in Labuga for the past eight years. Interestingly, this is what I discovered during the first week of August 2010. I really believed that I was simply doing my best to help another, but I have realized that there is a fine line between helping others and seeking to create one’s own self-worth. One can help to the extent that you allow other persons to make you responsible for them, to that extent you have allowed them to take you on a Power Trip.

Au-Le
Lubara Huya.