I often think about what individuals can do, to promote peace. Trying to be more patient, trying to reach out to someone in need, trying to NOT greedily gobble all the resources within reach.
I send in my charitable contributions. I put in my volunteer hours. I go through the upstairs trash when I bring it down, and recycle what can be recycled. I think about how incredibly much difference it would make if every person in this amazingly rich country would recycle one more thing each day than they do now.... Take the bus one more time. Turn the furnace down one degree; turn the air-conditioning up one degree. Hang a load of clothes outside. Buy a slightly smaller car.
If we used fewer resources, surely others, elsewhere, would be better off, and so, maybe less angry, maybe more hopeful, less needful of striking out in horrible ways....
I can't say I'm optimistic that, overall, anything I do, all by myself, makes a difference. But I keep on doing what I do, assuaging my sense of duty if not experiencing any warm fuzzies..... And I keep on appreciating purple and yellow, orange and blue, green and red.....
2 comments:
Thank you.
I remind myself that it is "better to light a single candle than to do nothing but curse the darkness," and that throwing some of the hundreds of starfish stranded on the beach back into the water doesn't save all of them, but makes a difference to each one returned to the sea......
I find it hard to figure out when I've done "enough." I generally have a little more money, a little more time.....
In point of fact, I would go nuts, doing much more than I currently do. I need time to NOT be doing things because I *should* do them, for one reason or another....
I suppose, ideally, doing good would be like exercise. You're supposed to find something that you actively like to do, and then you'll love to do it, for its own sake, and it's just a lovely bonus that you also stay in shape, or make the world a better place.
Sounds like a pipe dream to me, whether the topic is exercise or doing good!
There are certainly some volunteer gigs that I like more or less than others, and some things that I don't mind doing, but actively LIKE doing? I can't think of any. (And I majorly hate one of my current ones [can't walk away from it right now], so maybe I'm extra sour on the whole concept.)
I was castigated one time for not feeling all warm and fuzzy after I give blood. Nice for that woman that *she* feels that way, but the fact remains that I feel slightly more satisfied that I've behaved properly than before I went in to give blood, but all warm and fuzzy? Not.................
I keep stumping along, but I don't get any jollies out of it. I feel less bad than I would feel if I didn't do anything, but I am so clear that the amount of difference I make is so nearly nil that it is hard to take more than a breath of satisfaction.
Standing out in the back yard, hanging up the wash on a 75 degree day, I hear the neighbors' air conditioning come on. Hard not to conclude that every erg of energy I save is being squandered by someone else. And then some.
Sigh.
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