세계 시민으로 살기

    이웃에 사는 여섯 가정이 모였다. 가까이 사는 사람들끼리 식사라도 함께하며 살아가는 이야기를 나누자는 취지의 모임이다. 나이는 40대 초반부터 50대 중반. 한국에서 캐나다로 건너온 시기는 91년, 95년, 97년, 99년으로 다양하다. 대개 15년이 넘었다.

자동차 부품 공장에서 부품 디자인 일을 하는 사람, 은행에서 컴퓨터 관련 일을 하는 사람, IBM에서 근무하는 사람, 광고 관련 사업을 하는 사람, 부동산중개인 등 서로 다른 직업을 가졌다.

다섯 살짜리 딸을 둔 아빠도 있고 여섯 살된 딸을 둔 아빠도 있다, 곧 엠티 네스터(empty nester)가 되는 아빠도 세 명이나 된다. 자녀들 역시 나름으로 열심히 노력하며 다양한 삶을 이어가고 있다.

모두들 캐나다로 건너와 씩씩하게 잘들 살고 있다. 이국만리 새로운 나라에 둥지를 틀고 살아가는 이들은 참으로 용감하고 또 도전하는 사람이라 할 수 있지 않을까. 

공통점은 모두들 열심히 살고 있다는 점. 새벽 네 시에 일어나 20~30분 샌드위치를 싸고 두 시간 동안 영어공부를 한 후 출근을 하는 사람이 있는가 하면, 다섯 시경 일어나 하루를 시작하는 사람도 있다. 대개는 이른 아침 회사로 출근하고 퇴근 후 일찍 집으로 돌아와 집안일을 거드는 식이다.

스위스 세계 경제 포럼이 제시한 세계 시민의 조건은 다음의 세 가지를 들고 있다. 첫째, 모국어와 다른 나라말까지 포함해 세 개의 언어로 남의 의견을 들을 수 있고, 자신의 뜻과 의지를 진실하게 전달할 수 있어야 하며 둘째, 자신과 생각이 다른 사람을 아우를 수 있어야 하고 지역, 학력, 빈부의 차이로 생각이 다른 사람들을 차별하지 말아야 한다. 아울러 서로 다른 주장을 경청하고, 조정할 수 있어야 한다. 셋째는 문화가 다른 사람들과 함께 일할 수 있어야 하며. 자신의 민족성과 국가 정체성을 지키면서도 다양성과 융통성을 발휘해 다른 문화권 사람들과 어울려 일을 이루어 낼 줄 알아야 한다.

여기에 하나를 더 덧붙이자면 사람을 사랑할 수 있는 마음이 있어야 한다는 점일 터이다. 나만 배부르면 그만이라는 생각, 지구촌에 속한 이웃이 굶주림과 고통으로 죽어가도 아무렇지도 않다는 생각을 버리는 것, 이것이 세계시민이 되는 출발점일지도 모른다. 세계 시민이 되기 위해 애쓰는 이웃이 자랑스럽다. 

<A good deed a day is the gift that keeps on giving>

 There are random acts of kindness...and then there are outrageous ones.

Toronto business consultant and aspiring comedian Jessica Joy Simpson Fowler is committed to both.

Whether she’s helping job seekers with her business skills and resumé writing tips, offering free shoe shines at Billy Bishop Airport or even flashing her undies at men who roll by in wheelchairs, Fowler, 28, is all about making people feel better about their day, their world and, most of all, about themselves.

“Sometimes I do good deeds and people look at me like I have 10 heads,” she says, laughing, on the phone from an Ottawa business trip. “I don’t think we should feel that way, like people who do good deeds are crazy. We really should be good to each other because we’re all in this together.”

Two weeks ago, Fowler launched a website AGoodDeedADay.ca to blog her acts of kindness and to encourage others to share theirs. She had been working on it since March, determined to get as many people as possible to “pay it forward.”

But the relentless optimist has another motive: It’s her cover against being thought insane.

“So many times I would try to do good deeds and people would walk away because they just don’t get it. Now I can give them a card now and say, ‘Check it out. This will explain it.’ ”

The Kitchener-Waterloo native says she recognized “the power of reciprocity” as a child and, as she grew up, she learned how she could use it to bring about positive outcomes both for herself and those around her.

“At university, I started these random ‘I love you’ days,” she recalls, her voice bubbling with enthusiasm. “I would buy these packs of postcards and write really nice messages on them and put them in people’s mailboxes. Completely anonymous. Even this year on Valentine’s Day, I actually put them in envelopes and taped them to the condos all around where I live.

“My girlfriend said, ‘No, you can’t do that. What if somebody thinks her boyfriend has a mistress or you’re breaking up a couple?’ I didn’t think of that. I thought, ‘Oh, who doesn’t like a nice message?’”

Or a nice compliment?

Fowler estimates she hands out a couple of dozen a day, including a few drive-bys — “Love your boots!” — on the street.

Of course, it takes confidence to approach strangers, lift your skirt to give a wheelchair-riding old guy a laugh, grab an ice cream for a child, or offer to buy and share a meal with a homeless person. Fowler says she built up hers up by travelling, starting with earning a graduate business degree in France and then working with Channel NewsAsia in Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea and Cyprus.

“Having a smile and being kind goes across any border, any culture, any religion,” she says.

Kindness doesn’t require cash, she maintains. Yes, you can buy coffee for everyone in line with you at Tim Hortons, but you can also devote time to helping people out with a problem, reaching out to an elderly neighbour who may be alone, or giving a friendly “Good morning” to fellow riders on the TTC during the morning rush.

And there’s payback — although Fowler insists she doesn’t do her good deeds with the expectation of anything but feeling good in return.

Still.

“I have had many doors open doing good deeds,” she says, recalling a man she met at a sushi bar with whom she shared her rolls while explaining her website.

“He said, ‘Oh I have this boat, if you really want to do a good deed maybe next weekend you could help me clean it. So I go and clean this guy’s boat all day, eight hours, manual labour, scrubbing down, and he turned out to be this very powerful man and he now will always have my back. He knew I didn’t know who he was, but I just went down and did it.

“There have been times when things have spun off from doing good deeds, whether it’s getting to know someone or getting into parties.”

That’s why Fowler doesn’t understand why more people aren’t following her lead — although she hopes her website will inspire others.

“If you do things selflessly you never know where it will take you.”

<Toronto Star, Published on Saturday Nov 23, 2013 Page GT 1 & GT9 by Antonia Zerbisias>