Crossing things off your list doesn’t make the list shorter— its just makes you think of other things you forgot when you made the list in the first place.
We make our own sacrifices and worship our own gods, from materialism to social justice. We have our own talismans, always connected to our human conceit.
Service can be connected to spiritual pride, something we “do for others” that makes us feel good about ourselves. There was none of that with this group.
There were classes in science, math, English and Nepali, all based on workbooks and recitation. I would not have been able to study, with the amazing view outside the open windows.