....or compassionate on a global scale, or even do the right thing. My brother is in the oil business and I used to argue with him that he should be using his gigantic brain to do something useful...even as I use my computer and burn my lights and run my car on his product. But what can I do? What can I do. It's the refrain that paralyzes everyone who thinks about it for more than a minute. Can I, one lone person, make a difference by boycotting companies who are exposed for abuse of the environment, of desperate workers, of companies who--and here's where it gets tricky--take advantage of my own neediness and greed? You mean my participation in the system might be actually feeding the very system I abhor? Yes, I guess I do. The only thing I can come up with is to start doing with less...with growing my own, making my own, unplugging. Another brother started out his married life buying up acres in the Pennsylvania wilderness and his wife grew and canned everything they ate, made everything. I've never seen a more exhausted bride! He wanted all of us to come live on his land and do the same, but that bride was not a great advertisement. Anyway, he was decades ahead of his time, sold the land and part of his spirit and went on to a successful career creating financial software. We're all trying although the timing might be off. This year, I resolve to support people who are growing and making things a little closer to my home. And to look closely at my choices and their ramifications. To not look away at unpleasantness. And if I can't alleviate the unpleasant facts in my face, to at least accept the ambiguity of my--our--plight of just being human and not having all the answers. But I will not look away.
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