** Won't you please share the joy of WYFP by recommending?
I cannot think of a personal problem tonight. I feel great. Yet, all is not right with the world. One need not look past the titles on the recommended list to see that. And this site would be pointless if we didn't share some belief that our attention and participation can make it better.
Usually, most of the woes on the recommended list are large-scale problems, and usually most of the proposed solutions focus on systematic change, through politics or other means. But sometimes we get diaries on there which remind us in an intensely personal way that what we perceive as broad social or national or international problems impact specific individuals (ChiGirl88's diary about her brother's suicide was what got me started thinking about this, though I don't feel any specific broad-scale cause should be pointed to in his tragedy). We see that in WYFP every single week too... and I think it's actually really, really important that we do notice that.
The late Trappist monk and peace and social justice activist Thomas Merton wrote, in
a letter to a young activist (the rest of it is also worth reading; it's short):
[...] you may have to face the fact that your work will be apparently worthless and even achieve no result at all, if not perhaps results opposite to what you expect. As you get used to this idea, you start more and more to concentrate not on the results but on the value, the truth of the work itself. And there, too, a great deal has to be gone through, as gradually you struggle less and less for an idea and more and more for specific people. The range tends to narrow down, but it gets much more real. In the end it is the reality of personal relationships that saves everything.
Our love and caring for specific people is grounding in our political activity. It can be the life of our passion, and of our resolve even when things seem not to be going well. It makes witnessing for peace and justice about something more authentic and important than demagoguery or partisanship. It keeps us focused on doing real good for actual people rather than emptily battling an opponent.
So, what's up tonight? What's your effing problem? And, do you have a personal story about your caring for some particular person that led you to take action to make broad change?