A TRUE HOLLYWOOD STORY

Cambodian Dump Children

"I don't want this to be my world." So realized Scott Neeson after reviewing his life of 5 bedroom homes, weekend yachting, sports cars, and first class travel amenities as a Hollywood movie mogul. It was a privileged life but not a happy one for Neeson. He found his true happiness, true reality, on the other side of the world working with the street children of Cambodia who beg in the streets and scavenge the refuse dumps for anything they might sell for something to eat. Neeson found from the depths of his human spirit a desire for his world not to be a place where children have to scavenge the refuse trash to find a way to live.
Neeson now lives in Phnom Penh where he established "Cambodian Children's Fund" which provides a better place for the children to live and to be schooled so they might escape the life of a refuse. Below are some of his insights as he made the transition from movie mogul to global mentor as chronicled in The Life of Meaning.

On Neeson's response regarding his wealthy charmed life: Man you're so lucky, you've got the best life." "I sort of enjoyed it, but I wasn't particularly happy...it didn't seem like it was me."

When people say that the Cambodian Children's Fund work is "just a drop in the bucket," Neeson responds, "Every drop is a child's life and its these drops that make up society."

"If these kids had TVs..there would definitely be a breakdown in the closeness with the parents, which without a doubt to me is what gets them through the day."

"They have some issues but they're happy and appreciative."

From Buddhism's view of suffering: "When you understand and let go trying to change things, let go feeling that you deserve better, that this is unfair, then I think it helps you get through."

"This feels so much more like reality than what I was doing before...there's no going back...I get up early in the morning and I can't wait to get into work. How many people in the world can say that?"