Recently, I found myself sitting on someone's living room floor, drinking white wine from a coffee cup and listening to a group of twenty-somethings talk about how screwed up the world is. This probably doesn't come as a real surprise to anyone.
A couple weeks ago, it felt like each day brought with it its own horrific heartbreaking news. Pair this with the spreading awareness of pollution, a confusing and sometimes unbearable election for Americans, knowledge of institutional racism, and the feeling that the people responsible for most of the chaos our world is facing can simply shrug it off. We sat there on the carpet floor feeling a bit, well, frantic.
Granted, as one of my art professors used to tell our class as we listened to classical music and attempted to capture the essence of a stick on paper, the world has overall became a better place.
But it's easy to forget this at times.
While sitting in this little circle, one person dropped some little words of truth I needed to remember, "I think that in order to change the world, we have to focus our efforts on fixing our local community."
Okay, she said something along those lines. It's been over a week, cut me a little slack.
But think about the reality of those words for a moment.
Think about how if we focused our efforts on our local communities our we could see immediate change. Now, don't get my words twisted. I'm not saying to ignore the problems of other parts of the world. I'm certainly not condoning abandoning our neighbors in their times of need. The internet has given us the power to be global and to have access to invaluable information about what is happening. We can't ignore this gift.
But it takes time to make change happen on a larger scale. While we continue to fight for this change, we can benefit from investing our time and energy on the community around us.
Our votes for the presidential election don't hold much weight individually. But our votes for the local major do. We can care about the fact that an estimated 100 million people are homeless worldwide and donate our time or money to homeless individuals in our community. In fact, if you are too busy to volunteer and don't trust larger organizations with your money, you can donate to thrift stores or create your own care package.
If we care about the impact of greenhouse gases, we can strive to buy from local farmers or attempt to grow our own food. If we care about supporting the environment, we can join local beach or forest cleanups, practice reducing our usage of plastic bags and always pack up what we bring out when we go hiking. We can practice patience, remember kindness, and try to put our best foot forward.
When I was a kid, I used to wonder if I would grow up to be one of those people who would change the world. I'm pretty sure most people aspire to make everlasting change. And I'm not saying I've given up on that goal but have perhaps learned the importance of adapting it.
