So Many Causes, So Little Time

There are just so many hours in a day and yet there are so many urgent issues calling to us, competing for our attention. In order to both honor this urgency and remain healthy, a personal balance must be struck. This is as true for those who add their activism to a civilian day job as it is for those whose vocation it is to fix the ills of society. It’s sometimes difficult, even knowing better, to remember that healing the world should be part of a diverse, rich, and full life, not a replacement for one.

Balance can be hard to achieve and maintain because of the huge gaps we were called upon to fill during the Bush regime. But to think that because Obama’s heart is in the right place and doing a better job at doing the right thing that we are off the hook is high folly. Now more than ever, because the president has invited us to participate, it is appropriate to “Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.” It will take each of us, contributing what we can to rectify the inequities in thought, deed, and services that were set in place and reclaim the soul of America while creating a new approach to altruism and social service.

This blog will help you link your personal world and world work. You won’t get to nirvana over night, nor can you single-handedly create a safe, terror-free planet, save every river, feed every refugee, lift up the press, give every child a home, stop every lunatic with a gun or bomb, end all violence, get every despot out of office, and stop all war. But you can determine which issues you find most compelling and how you participate beyond the givens of being informed, asking pointed questions, demanding truthful answers, and getting plenty of loving care as you do. To that end we will explore various aspects of society and the possibilities they offer. Some may be benign, others more provocative. Some will be initiated by the Blog, others by you. Some like “Don’t Ask. Don’t Tell” will be timely, others like “Greed is Poverty’s Evil Twin” is about a national disposition, or like “Purpose-Driven Art,” which offers up a form of activism, are on-going. Welcome