Reminder

Yesterday I was reminded just how much I don't know about the world.  I know that there are poor, hungry, oppressed, hopeless people in the world.  I know it intellectually yet vaguely.  It is so easy to forget, as I wallow comfortably in my own stew of problems.  Little problems, some bigger ones, but magnified all out of proportion as I focus on them narrowly.

It's hard to think about the enormous problems in the world, because it makes me feel so powerless and ineffective.  I can't think of a way to fix everything, so I choose to bury my head in the sand and do nothing.  That doesn't make sense either.  I don't let myself think too much about things like death or rape or anything bad happening to a child, because I don't have a way to make sense of those feelings.  I feel like if I let myself fully feel them that I will start crying and never stop.  And what use is crying over things I cannot change?

Human beings have such capacity for cruelty.  I know we have also an enormous ability to love.  How do you make any headway in such an ocean of problems?  I feel a responsibility to do something, but no clue on what to do.  It's the same conundrum that keeps me from moving effectively in a single direction in my own life.  There are too many choices, too many directions, too much to do.  I know logically that I need to pick one direction, one task, one idea, and follow through completely.

But if I knew how to choose and commit to keep moving forward, I'd be doing it already.  How do you learn this skill?  I need it.  I feel guilty being so unfocused.