Quiche, Haiti, and Suffering

Material comforts that may seem luxuries to the world's needy do not provide bumpers against the ravages of our emotional lives. We don't experience limited emotional ranges simply because our basic needs are cared for, and we can't expect each other to be whole simply because our physical surroundings are whole. The suffering of those new mothers in my San Francisco ward was valid, and where there is pain there is service worth doing.

The friend to whom I brought a quiche has a home, food, and clothing, and in those regards is far better off than most people in the world. But there is turmoil inside, and for that, it is human connections that serve best. I have, as I've gotten older, discovered that there are legions of Mormon families providing physical service globally through monetary donations as well as heroic dedications of time and effort. The Church's humanitarian effort in Haiti alone is mammoth, and I have become personal friends with church members who bandage the sores of leprosy patients in India, have started orphanages in Guatemala, and build wells in Africa. I firmly believe that as church members, we have a duty to participate in that kind of service where we can. But for those whose lives lack structure, sustenance, and health inside instead of outside, a knock on the door is exactly what Christ requires.

Neylan McBaine grew up Mormon in New York City and attended Yale University. She has been published in Newsweek, Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Segullah, Meridian Magazine and BustedHalo.com. She is the author of a collection of personal essays -- How to Be a Twenty-First Century Pioneer Woman (2008) -- and the founder and editor-in-chief of The Mormon Women Project, a library of interviews with LDS women found at The Mormon Women Project. She blogs at http://www.neylanmcbaine.com.