I don’t know what to do for the world.
I don’t know how to help.
It seems like too much, sometimes. There are crimes against humanity occurring in this moment, this very second, all over the world.
There is widespread ethnic cleansing going on, in places like Myanmar. And in the Central African Republic. In Sudan. Atrocities against children, women, and men, of all ages. That is just the tip of it.
I don’t know what to do.
I can’t even make a difference in my own country, where our current administration is promoting discrimination against groups like blacks, and women, and gays.
There are so many ‘causes’ out there. Too many to count. Around the world and back again. I guess I just need to keep a long list, and call my governmental representatives every day and tell them.
Most days, it just feels like the planet is just going to explode in the very next minute.
And the next thing you know, we are all scrolling down the page, and watching the speed video on Facebook, of How to Make Glazed French Toast Cinnamon Swirl. Or watching the dog get a massage with a duck towel over its private parts.
I just don’t know.
What to do, for this world.
Does any of it really make a difference?
Honest to goodness, just now, the story of the little girl walking on the beach, popped into my head. You’ve probably all heard it, but here it goes.
A little girl is walking along a beautiful beach with her mother. As they walk they get to a place where thousands and thousands of starfish are washing up on the beach, stranded, dying.
The little girl starts picking up one starfish at a time and throwing it back into the water.
Her mother says, “Oh honey, that isn’t going to make any difference.”
And as the little girl throws another one back into the ocean, she turns around and says, “It makes a difference to this one.”
Maybe today, all we can do, is pick up that one little star.
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What is the meaning of life? That was all — a simple question; one that tended to close in on one with years. The great revelation had never come. The great revelation perhaps never did come. Instead, there were little daily miracles, illuminations, matches struck unexpectedly in the dark; here was one. — Virginia Woolf
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“The purpose of life is to contribute in some way to making things better.”
― Robert F. Kennedy
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“In a gentle way, you can shake the world.”
― Mahatma Gandhi
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