June 14th, 2023: Vultures

This picture was taken by Kevin Carter, a South African photographer, during the starvation of Sudan in 1993. He won Pulitzer Prize for this photograph; a vulture stalked a starving boy.

Someone asked him about the fate of the little boy in the photograph during an interview soon after he won the Pulitzer Prize. He said he did not know and he was in a hurry to get a flight going somewhere. The person then told him there were two vultures on that day, the one we saw in the photograph and the other with a camera. He went into severe depression after that and ended up taking his own life soon after in 1994.

My father-in-law used to describe motorists' curiosity when going by a scene of an accident as the vulture index. Do we all have some form of vulture index? The existence of reality shows is one of them. The obsession with the Royal family is another. The hunger for sensational news concerning our public figures is also one. The addiction to various forms of social media might be another. Our indifference toward the suffering of the homeless might be one as well.

We are willing to take mental snapshots of others' suffering and pontificate about its meaning while offering no effort to be part of the solution. What question do we think Jesus would ask us on the day of his return?

"For I was hungry, and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty, and you gave me nothing to drink,43 I was a stranger, and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes, and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison , , and you did not look after me." - Matthew 25: 42-43